Infectious Disease
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Fecal Microbiota Testing
Researchers have determined that persons with diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease — or people who have received recent antibacterial therapy — may exhibit very different microbiota profiles. Unfortunately, no one really knows what these differences mean in terms of your overall health.
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Is a Dabigatran Reversal Agent Effective?
A pragmatic clinical study of idarucizumab for counteracting the effects of the oral anticoagulant dabigatran showed rapid and complete reversal of its effects in patients with major bleeding or urgent surgery, without any adverse safety concerns.
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Can Medical Therapy Improve Functional Mitral Regurgitation?
Among patients who presented with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and severe functional mitral regurgitation, mitral regurgitation improved in 38% of patients with medical management. Improvement in mitral regurgitation was associated with increased survival.
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Rapid Test for Emerging C. auris Under Development
If the test is validated in this larger trial, it will enable hospitals to rapidly identify C. auris in patients or the hospital environment.
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CDC: Clinicians Should Be Vigilant in Watching for Post-hurricane Infections
The period of increased risk could run through March 2018 if the current pace of restoration efforts continues.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.