Infectious Disease
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Infection Prevention: The Past Is Prelude
Looking to the past and the present, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) President Karen Hoffmann, RN, MS, CIC, FSHEA, FAPIC, recently gave a keynote address in Philadelphia at the annual APIC conference. Hoffman also is an infection prevention consultant for the Survey and Certification Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a clinical instructor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
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FDA Alert: Fatal Infection Following Fecal Transplant
Multidrug-resistant organisms are infecting new patients via transplantation, putting recipients at risk of infections and threatening to spur larger hospital outbreaks. Two recently reported incidents underscore the threat, with one described in an alert by the FDA about fecal microbiota transplantation to treat Clostridioides difficile infections.
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FDA: Hospitals Could Face Shortages of Sterile Supplies
The emission of ethylene oxide from sterilization facilities into surrounding communities has raised cancer concerns, warnings, and closures that threaten the critical flow of sterile supplies in healthcare, the FDA reports. Infection preventionists should keep communication channels open with central sterile supply and other key colleagues to ensure spot shortages of equipment do not pose a threat to patient safety.
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Meeting the Challenge of Sterilizing Duodenoscopes
Infection preventionists and central sterile supply technicians must work together to protect patients from duodenoscopes that could remain contaminated after reprocessing. That is the take-home message from a comprehensive program that shows it can be done.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Surgeons Really Are Different; Short-Course Atovaquone/Proguanil for Malaria Prophylaxis; The High Cost of Chronic Lyme Treatment
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Trimethoprim Sulfamethoxazole Plus Clindamycin for Treatment of Staphylococcus aureus Endocarditis
A before-and-after intervention study compared 170 patients treated with either oxacillin IV or vancomycin IV for six weeks (plus gentamicin IV given during the first five days) to 171 patients who were treated with TMP/SMZ IV plus clindamycin IV for the first week followed by TMP/SMZ PO (without clindamycin) to complete a six-week course. Mortality and hospital length of stay were significantly less in the TMP/SMZ-treated patients.
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Checkpoint Inhibitors: The First Effective Therapy for Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy?
Enhancing the immune response with checkpoint inhibitors may be beneficial in the management of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a viral disease previously recalcitrant to therapy.
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Significance of Pyuria in Children With Neurogenic Bladder
Pyuria is common in asymptomatic children with neurogenic bladders, especially after bladder surgery. The simple presence of pyuria does not necessarily indicate a need for antibiotic treatment.