Infectious Disease
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Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines Bundle: Studying How Improved Compliance Might Affect Outcomes
Improved compliance with the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines bundle was associated with a non-statistically significant decrease in the in-hospital mortality of severe sepsis patients.
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Ready for Dengue in the United States?
Dengue is increasingly recognized in the southern United States. When recently surveyed, however, clinicians in Texas seemed incompletely prepared to understand and manage patients with dengue.
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Bambi Strikes Again — Encephalitis Due to the ‘Deer Tick Virus’ (Powassan Virus) May Be Increasing in Frequency
Powassan virus is transmitted by the same tick that carries the etiologic agent of Lyme disease and several other pathogens. The number of cases of encephalitis caused by this virus may be increasing in the endemic areas.
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Current Trends and Outcomes for Infective Endocarditis
Using large databases from New York and California, investigators found the overall incidence of infective endocarditis remained stable between 1998 and 2013, and 90-day mortality declined. Changes were noted in pathogen etiology and patient characteristics over time.
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First Case of Hepatitis A Transmission by Transplant
Though hepatitis A virus (HAV) has spread via blood transfusion, the virus had never transmitted from a transplant patient. Now, through a circuitous chain of events, it has. Indeed, HAV spread from an organ donor to the transplant recipient, and then to three nurses providing post-transplant care, the CDC reports.1
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Drugs, Death, and Infectious Diseases
The intersection of the national opioid epidemic and infection control has reached some strange and critical crossroads, from drug-diverting healthcare workers infecting patients to addicted admissions infecting themselves by injecting through their IV lines. Now, we have another twist: the distinct possibility that infectious diseases could be masking some of the national death toll of opioids.
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Wild, Wild West: Clinic Outbreak Breaks All the Rules
How egregious were the infection control violations in an outbreak in a New York City outpatient oncology clinic? Three patients died and investigators agreed it could have been much worse. The staggering array of breaks in basic practice prompted investigator Joel Ackelsberg, MD, MPH, to dub the outbreak “the wild, wild west.”
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Mysterious Paralysis Cases Continue in Children
A cryptic polio-like illness of unknown etiology is increasing, causing more severe symptoms in younger patients than when it first emerged in 2014, a CDC investigator reports.
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Emerging Candida auris Spreading in Healthcare Outbreaks
Candida auris causes high mortality, can transmit to patients on the hands of healthcare workers, persists in the environment, and can colonize people who then serve as a reservoir for outbreaks.
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Clinical Briefs
In this section: Addressing postprandial glucose elevations; examining the possible connection between COPD and pulmonary embolisms; and defining healthcare's future reality.