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The infection prevention community has lost a high-placed ally, as Julie Gerberding, MD, has stepped down as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the political changes of the new administration. A new director had not been named as this issue went to press.
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Hospitals are stuck in a holding pattern in their sharps safety programs. Injury rates dropped dramatically after the implementation of safer sharps in 2001, but many facilities have since reached a plateau.
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In a case that recalls the national turmoil during the Florida HIV dental outbreak in the early 1990s, investigators have determined that HIV provider-to-patient infections remain exceedingly rare.
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Emphasizing that 'health care-associated infections are one of the most preventable causes of leading mortality in the U.S," the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has developed a comprehensive national plan to fight HAIS. A five-point draft strategy was developed by HHS for the plan:
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Infection preventionists well know that patients have become increasingly aware of the problem of health care-associated infections (HAIs), becoming prevention activists in their own right and putting increasing pressure on hospitals to address the issue. That pressure is about to increase exponentially.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has developed a sweeping national "Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections" that not only brings its considerable influence to bear on a longstanding problem, but also calls on hospital leadership, infection preventionists, clinicians, and even patients to help solve it.
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Having worked in infection prevention for more than three decades, Barbara Soule, RN, MPA, CIC, has come full circle.
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Although enzyme-immunoassay (EIA) tests have replaced cytotoxin assays for diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) in most U.S. laboratories, the changing epidemiology of this disease suggests that an adjustment in diagnostic testing algorithms is needed.
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In an age when it's hard to keep track of the latest cell phone features, sharing infection prevention tools on the web would appear to be an idea whose time has long since come.
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It began with an exchange between an infection preventionist and a clinical manager over a piece of equipment, a walker used to allow unassisted movement by patients.