Hospital Infection Control & Prevention
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CDC Q&A for Hospitals Notifying Patients About Heater-Cooler Device
The CDC recently issued the following answers to common questions about notifying cardiac surgical patients potentially exposed to contaminated heater-cooler devices.
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CDC Calls for Massive Patient Notification on Heater-Coolers
The CDC is alerting hospitals that hundreds of thousands of open-heart surgery patients may be at risk of slow-growing infections caused by heater-cooler devices that were intrinsically contaminated during production.
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Lab Efficacy of Respirators over Masks Undermined by Real-World Use
The notion that surgical masks provide the same protection from respiratory viruses in a hospital is commonly refuted by lab studies, which show the greater effectiveness of a well-fitted N95 in filtering out aerosols and particles that could go through a standard mask.
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Did Prostate Cancer Treatment Lead to Fatal Zika Infection?
Most Zika infections are asymptomatic and non-consequential unless the infected person is pregnant or has had unprotected sex while the virus was circulating in the blood or persisting in a human reservoir like semen. Thus, we have seen tragic birth defects, failed or terminated pregnancies, transmission to sexual partners both male and female, and Zika infection following a needlestick.
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Injection Safety Lapses All Too Common in Ambulatory Care
Injection safety issues related to the improper use of needles, syringes, and vials continue to put patients at risk of bloodborne and bacterial infections in ambulatory care clinics and outpatient surgery centers.
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Recent Studies Complicate Flu Shot Message
Children are at risk of flu complications and can spread the virus to vulnerable populations like the elderly, so they are an important target for annual vaccination. However, a recent study1 found some parents do not seek vaccination for their children based on the perception that it is not needed or their kids don’t get the flu.
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Dropping Live Nasal Flu Vaccine Leaves Some Disappointed
Some pediatricians and their patients were taken aback by the decision to drop the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) nasal spray as a recommended flu vaccine for the 2016-2017 season in the U.S.
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Mandates Work: Hospitals Hit 91% Flu Vaccination Rate
It's a far cry from the lagging levels of the voluntary flu shot era.
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C. difficile Burden Varies By Facility, Sometimes Only Miles Apart
While the risks for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) are well-recognized, the basis for the significant variation in CDI incidence found in long-term care across the United States is poorly understood. These authors examined regional risk factors for CDI across Veteran Health Administration long-term care facilities (LTCFs) from 2006 to 2012. VHA is divided into 86 different regions, and there are significant differences between them in the risk of CDI.
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FDA Bans Over-the-Counter Antibacterial Washes
Citing a lack of efficacy data, the FDA has banned marketing of over-the-counter consumer antiseptic and antibacterial hand and body wash products in a final rule that will not affect healthcare settings.