As we enter the next millennium of infection control, we stand on theshoulders of giants—Jenner, Semmelweis, Nightingale, Oliver Wendell Holmes,and my own personal favorite, Thomas Crapper, the father of indoorplumbing. Modern infection control is grounded in the work of IgnazSemmelweis, who in the 1840s demonstrated …
The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) is a federal advisory committee made up of 14 external infection control experts who provide advice and guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human …
Have you ever wondered why it is that we have such trouble with influenza? Why don’t we just get immunized once, and never need to worry again? Why is it that once we have had the “flu”, we can later “catch” the “flu” again and …
University of Iowa researchers have succeeded in wiping out established biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus (staph) by hijacking one of the bacteria’s own regulatory systems. Although the discovery is not ready for clinical application, the findings offer insight into a dispersal mechanism for staph biofilms and …
Although microbiologically contaminated surfaces can serve as reservoirs of potential pathogens, these surfaces generally are not directly associated with transmission of infections to either staff or patients. The transferral of microorganisms from environmental surfaces to patients is largely via hand contact with the surface. Although …
VISA and VRSA are specific types of antimicrobial-resistant staph bacteria. While most staph bacteria are susceptible to the antimicrobial agent vancomycin some have developed resistance. VISA and VRSA cannot be successfully treated with vancomycin because these organisms are no longer susceptibile to vancomycin. However, to …
Overall, S. aureus is the most common cause of bacterial infections involving the bloodstream, lower respiratory tract, and skin/soft tissue. MRSA (methicillin resistant S. aureus) is at present the most commonly identified antibiotic-resistant pathogen in many parts of the world, including Europe, the Americas, North …
A single bacterium can become a million bacteria in just eight hours and — in an era of MRSA and other public health concerns — disinfectant products are also multiplying: germicidal sales are projected to be more than $1 billion this year with 8,000 disinfectant …
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections that patients acquire during the course of receiving treatment for other conditions within a healthcare setting. Healthcare-associated infections are one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States.
The problem of hospital-acquired infections is far larger than previous CDC estimates, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The article, assessing the number of MRSA “invasive” infections in the United States, shows that for every patient diagnosed …