COVID-19

COVID-19 has not been the only pathogen that has been spreading the last few years. Candida auris has taken a hold, not only in the United States but around the world. Here are the details and how environmental hygiene practices can protect patients in a health care setting.

The method used to determine costs and expenses in environmental services (EVS) in hospitals is often flawed because many times the individuals creating the standards have never worked in EVS. AHE is addressing this problem.

Gathering in beautiful Geneva, Switzerland, experts from all over the world will discuss the problems and possible solutions facing environmental hygiene today. Alexandra Peters, PhD, Clean Hospitals, talks to ICT® about the details.

Because of mask-wearing and social distancing, numbers of influenza cases have been down the last 2 years. However, experts say numbers this year could go back up to numbers in prior years. The public and health care workers alike need a nudge to get vaccinated.

The Association for Health Care Environment (AHE) annual conference brings together those individuals passionate about environmental hygiene. Rock Jensen, the AHE president for the board of advisors, describes to ICT® the goals of this year's conference.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending September 30.

Thorough cleaning and disinfection reduce the role fomites play in the spread of disease.

Viruses and other contaminants affect the air quality in health care, businesses, and homes. Listen to ICT®’s discussion about what should be done, and how one company is tackling the issue.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending September 23.

Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD, an American diplomat and infectious disease expert, once again joins Infection Control Today®, this time to talk about President Biden’s recent comment that the pandemic is over, and what can be done to mitigate the circumstances.

With the debate swirling around the efficacy and safety of UV-C technology, an individual needs which generation the product is. Infection Control Today® continues its ongoing special reporting on UV-C technology.

Despite studies that show UV-C is effective and safe, some individuals still refuse to believe it, based on experience with or studies based on first generation UV-C technology.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending September 16.

With COVID-19 beginning to surge, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center needed to create a response unit from what had been an inpatient nursing unit. A recent study explains how this conversion was effective and can stand as an example for other facilities.

Investigators have learned invaluable lessons from 2 and a half years of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on human immunity. Is natural infection better for long-term protection against COVID-19 or is vaccination? What does the data say?

Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD, believes not enough is doing to prepare for future pandemics. What are her recommendations? Find out in this final installment of her interview with Infection Control Today.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending September 9.

How much information should the public have about infectious diseases? Can the public handle the truth? If the correct information is not given out, will the public believe the medical leaders when another serious disease threatens the public’s health? Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD, continues her discussion with ICT.

CDC’s Medical Advisor for the Healthcare Safety Network, Raymund Dantes, MD, MPH, reviews sepsis and what infection preventionists, epidemiologists, and other health care workers need to know.

Long-term care facilities were once normally happier places, but COVID-19 changed the individuals working and living there. PPEs, testing, overwork, underpayment, and too many isolations have chased health care workers away and forced the facilities' population to plummet. Can anything be done?

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending September 2.

Starting September first, the first of the autumn boosters began to be available, but individuals may be concerned about their efficacy and safety. Infection Control Today® looks at the data.

Despite the gap of the current and desired rate of COVID-19 vaccinations of pregnant individuals, the systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 observational studies show the vaccines are safe and effective.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending August 19.

Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD, told Infection Control Today® exclusively, “Every mistake that we made with COVID-19 in January and February of 2020, repeated in real time with monkeypox.”

Ambassador Deborah Birx said in an exclusive interview with ICT® that there are “extraordinary structural barriers in the US to access” medical care. Individuals may have insurance, but they cannot access care.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed recommendations which neither control or prevent a rapidly evolving and disabling disease, COVID-19. However, we must maintain effective efforts to control spread of the virus.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending August 12.

Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD, infectious disease expert, and a former director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, weigh in on that agency's significantly changed quarantine and distancing guidelines.

It is apparent we cannot simply vaccinate our way back to normal. We must also encourage the public to adopt public health strategies, including the wearing of N95 masks, avoiding close contact with strangers, and improved indoor ventilation. Now, more than ever, infection preventionists are needed to turn this tide around.