HAIs

Although all patients require vigilant infection prevention measures and the goal should always be zero infections, the stakes are sometimes higher in the NICU, as infections there have higher potential for death.

Xenon lamps produce pulsed flashes of germicidal UV light at wavelengths from 200-315 nm, killing microbes on environmental surfaces.

As the threat from COVID-19 increases, so must the readiness of infection preventionists to respond. 

The CDC is more pessimistic than the WHO about containing the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

Christina Tan, MD, MPH, state epidemiologist and assistant commissioner with the New Jersey Department of Health, discusses the current coronavirus outbreak and how infection prevention efforts can help curb its spread.

Infection control specialists need to know how to successfully design and implement an effective infection prevention program.

“These estimates are reassuring,” says Brendan Flannery, PhD, the CDC’s investigator for the US Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Network.

Hospital administrators and infection preventionists have to contend with diversity among C. diff isolates.

Health officials say that this is a particularly bad year for an extended influenza season since flu symptoms and some of the symptoms of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, are the same (fever, cough, shortness of breath).

The agency uses an emergency use authorization to allow distribution of the diagnostic kits. 

The World Health Organization has just declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

In this uncertain time of constantly changing news and updates that often stress response efforts, it is important to focus on opportunities for prevention and ensuring staff have the right information.

Nancy Messonnier, MD, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases: "The situation is evolving rapidly."

Testing on human subjects could begin in 3 months.

But “it may become one yet,” warns WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Panel of WHO health experts will reconvene tomorrow.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, MD, the director-general of WHO, said that “never has the threat of antimicrobial resistance been more immediate and the need for solutions more urgent."

Health officials closely monitoring the situation.

Rebecca Leach, RN, BSN, MPH, CIC, speaks to Infection Control Today about dealing with respiratory illnesses during the flu season.

Both C. auris and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter are quite hardy in the environment. It takes a lot to control spread.

Infection preventionists keeping an eye on coronavirus.

Investigators wanted to find out how well infection preventionists (IPs) are used in antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs). They also sought out to take a look at what other members of ASPs think about IPs. The answer to both questions was “not much.”

Patients A and B were both older than 50, suffered from multiple comorbidities, and were residents of long-term care facilities. Both died.

Doffing protocols for treating patients with infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) appear to help ward off other healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), but how potent that effect might be remains uncertain.

Further evidence of the importance of patient hand hygiene in the fight against hospital-acquired infections.

It’s not a cure for Clostridiodies difficile, but it’s certainly a huge step toward finding one for the deadly infection that claims 15,000 lives a year in the United States alone, according to investigators who say they have identified the toxin that the most virulent strains of C. diff releases.