Infectious Disease
RSSArticles
-
APIC to CDC: Need for Legionella Guidance
In light of numerous Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks in the last few years, the CDC has asked clinicians in the field what should be emphasized in revised guidance to reduce the growth and transmission of Legionella spp. in healthcare water systems.
-
Heater-cooler Infections Linked to Tap Water
Heater-cooler devices used in cardiac surgery continue to be implicated in patient infections, and the take-home lesson from one recently reported outbreak is use only sterile water in the units.
-
Vaccine Rash Confounds Investigation of Measles Outbreak
A disease once declared eradicated in the U.S. exploded after Somali families in Minnesota chose to not vaccinate their children.
-
Do Long-sleeved Physician Coats Spread C. diff?
The “bare below the elbows” approach to infection control, wherein physicians wear short sleeves rather than their traditional white coats, has been met with some derision as a misguided approach by “fashion police.”
-
Driving C. diff to Zero? It’s Possible
An infection preventionist in Ohio drove C. diff to zero for a stunning 341 days with a multifaceted program that had buy-in from healthcare colleagues and hospital administration.
-
Decolonization Protocol Yields Mixed Results
A decolonization protocol that has reduced infections in ICU patients did not translate that overall efficacy when researchers tried it on non-critical care patients. However, when they targeted non-ICU patients with central and other lines in place, they saw MRSA and VRE infections drop by one-third.
-
IDWeek 2017: Resistant Bugs Rampant in Long-term Care
The nation’s long-term care facilities are teeming with multidrug-resistant organisms, giving pathogens that can cause virtually untreatable infections access to vulnerable patient populations across the healthcare continuum.
-
Secnidazole Oral Granules (Solosec)
The FDA has approved the first oral single-dose treatment for bacterial vaginosis in adult women.
-
Etiology of Acute Liver Failure and Next-generation Sequencing
Metagenomic next-generation sequencing was applied to examine serum from 204 adult patients with acute liver failure (ALF). Researchers identified a potential viral etiology in eight of the 187 patients with ALF of indeterminate etiology. Potential pathogens identified in these included HSV-1, HBV, parvovirus B19, CMV, and HHV-7.
-
Stewardship, Science, and Spirituality
Awareness of a patient’s and family’s belief system might help physicians appropriately frame explanations about the importance of antimicrobial stewardship.