COVID-19

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.

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

With stress and burnout from staff shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic, infection prevention auditors need to remember kindness and compassion.

The 16th annual conference will highlight speakers from around the globe, offer continuing education credits, and will be held as a webinar on September 14, 2022.

Adding staff is not the cure-all the CMS hopes it is. Higher wages and better government financial assistance would help, but fixing the system is not going to be easy.

Standardizing disinfectant wipes across multiple facilities requires comparing active ingredients, kill claims, and dwell times.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending July 29.

Despite the lessons learned from SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, monkeypox is still spreading worldwide, and those lessons do not seem to be halting its progress. The WHO hopes to change that.

COVID-19, and the emotional and physical toll it caused, reached all corners of the globe. At a nursing home in Hawaii, the staff describes how the pandemic has affected them.

With the World Health Organization declaring monkeypox a global emergency, Infection Control Today® looks at what lessons SARS-CoV-2 gave but were not followed, and what could be next.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending July 22.

Environmental sources of pathogen organisms can sometimes be difficult to narrow down in a health care facility. One possible source of transmission is the laundry used, and not maintaining strict cleanliness attention can put both patients and workers at risk.

Infection preventionists are not alone, despite how the COVID-19 pandemic has often made them feel. They are one point of the patient's triad--and the bonds within the triad are vital for the patient's outcome.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending July 15.

Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, and her colleagues examined how COVID-19 affected infection preventionists’ mental and physical health, and in an exclusive interview, she discusses how facilities and IPs themselves can mitigate burnout.

The report addresses how the US’s decisions on the pandemic generally increased antimicrobial resistance, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for the future.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending July 8.

Certain disinfecting cycles can be used to extend the frequency and use of single-use respirators, but how do they affect the respirator filtration efficiency?

Two patients were found with C auris in the CVAHCS beginning in October 2020, and a recent study describes how the facility handled the situation.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending July 1.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending June 24.

In all areas, infection preventionists took on more responsibilities and expanded the ones they already had, including staff education and employee health.

It is easy to become complacent, but the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not over, and long COVID-19 and the new variants are causing rising concern.

This recommendation comes at an critical time as this flu season is feared to be a rebound after the low numbers the last few years due to COVID-19 precautions.

Disinformation is continuing, even in the face of staggering evidence that COVID-19 is an ongoing dangerous pandemic.

The encouraging method used in the facility to raise the percentages was the answer to creating a positive response from the team.

Collaboration of a team from Inova Health with La Forma Medical developed an isolation gown that was cooler, better fitting, and more environmentally-friendly than disposables.