Prevention

Establishing a permanent system for monitoring the persistence and emergence of dangerous pathogens is necessary, especially COVID-19.

Maintaining proper hand hygiene is crucial in ensuring our safety and that of those around us and is rightly celebrated worldwide.

To control C auris, focus on using antibiotics and improving diagnostics. New treatments in development offer hope for better management. This is the fourth and final installment in CDC's interview with the ICT.

A recent study offers potential solutions to the frequent occurrence of surgical site infections, despite the sterile environment of surgical fields.

The vaccine is approved for use in adults aged 60 and older to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV.

To prevent the spread of C auris, the CDC recommends that IPs and environmental hygienists play a critical role. In this interview, the medical scientists clarify what specific actions they should take.

The fight for infection control and prevention (IPC) should be a global effort, and conferences play a crucial role in this fight. IPC conferences occur worldwide throughout the year, and a recent one focused on updates regarding antimicrobial resistance.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending April 30, 2023.

Findings provide the first published evidence of the relationship between standard precaution adherence and the safety of health care workers and patients.

A study published in AJIC describes how one health care system implanted an initiative by their IPs to prevent the health care-acquired infections when COVID-19 loomed over their work.

In the infections the investigators examined, about 60% of the bacteria that cause these infections did have a carbapenemase gene. Did they find a mortality difference in those infections which did and didn’t?

What are the issues if sterile processing departments (SPDs) can't hire more qualified personnel?

Saskia v. Popescu, PhD, MPH, MA, CIC, gives the latest on COVID-19, Marburg Virus Disease, and a 1-hit STI antibiotic plan.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending April 23, 2023.

How is infection prevention different in dental offices from other health care facilities? Experts explain.

The CDC updated and simplified its vaccine recommendations on April 19, 2023, and the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA bivalent COVID-19 vaccines should be used for all vaccinations in the US.

Kevin Kavanagh, MD, discusses how Russian bots have tried to convince the United States public that masking is unnecessary. What do the latest studies say?

Sulbactam-durlobactam is under priority review (PDUFA; May 29, 2023). 

Numerous pathogen outbreaks have been from the water in medical facilities. So what are the dangers, and what can infection preventionists do to prevent morbidities and mortalities from occurring?

One person has died of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome caused by Hantavirus in New Mexico. What is it, and what can be done to protect individuals from being exposed to Hantavirus?

Since the Marburg virus is deadly, what would it be like to work with it in a laboratory setting? And what can be done to protect those who work with patients with Marburg?

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending April 16, 2023.

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are not getting documented as often as they occur, and the financial toll could be staggering. Two experts presented about what can be done to reduce SSIs on this topic and then spoke with Infection Control Today at the Association for PeriOperative Nurses (AORN) held in San Antonio, Texas, on April 1-4, 2023.

Prescribers are presented with the optimal therapy challenges and achieving antibacterial stewardship.

With the focus of COVID-19, MRSA infections increased. How did the VA work to prevent this pathogen?

Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) or catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) have been increasing since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. What is the IP's role in preventing them and the mortalities that sometimes accompany them?

Two investigators from Australia spoke with ICT about how management tools can overcome health care worker reluctance and implement OR safety improvements.

How does someone become an infection preventionist or an epidemiologist? And how does the person continue to grow in their profession? Isis Lamphier, MPH, CIC, explains.

At the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), 2 posters about the COVID-19 antiviral, ensitrelvir, will be presented. ICT found out more about what they say.

In an education session at the 2023 Association of the PeriOperative Nurses (AORN), Sheri Voss, MS, RN, CNOR (Emeritus), taught attendees about factors affecting operational performance in the operating room and what can be done about them.