Infection Control Today Magazine - healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs), hospital infections, infection prevention and control, healthcare epidemiology, aseptic technique, environmental hygiene, hand hygiene, disinfection and sterilization, outbreak investigation, surveillance

FEATURES

Bacteria in Water Supply Systems

A new analysis of 100 million Medicare records from U.S. adults aged 65 and older reveals rising healthcare costs for infections associated with ...read more

Limitations of Standard Precautions

The Standard Precautions concept in healthcare dictates that healthcare workers assess risk in advance of a patient interaction and use appropriate ...read more

Consumer Antiseptic Wash Products

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a final rule establishing that over-the-counter (OTC) consumer antiseptic wash products containing ...read more

Making the Business Case for Technology

Infection preventionists, environmental services directors, purchasing managers and members of the hospital C-suite are finding themselves at the ...read more

Medical Device Reprocessing

This symposium will address key issues such as the dangers associated with improperly processed devices; the real-world situations that impede proper ...read more

Latest Headlines

Increasing Influenza Immunizations Rates for Healthcare Workers

Nurses, as well as other healthcare workers (HCWs), have close interactions and contact with all types of chronically ill patients that are immunosuppressed, fresh surgeries, elderly or very young. Influenza, a vaccine-preventable disease, is a serious threat to the ...More
July 23, 2009 Posted in Articles
Donning and Removing PPE for Infection Prevention

The demands on healthcare personnel (HCP) are extraordinary, but the importance of attention to personal protection cannot be underestimated. By way of example, a cluster of 17 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) cases among Canadian HCP in 2003 was studied. Among ...More
July 23, 2009 Posted in Articles, PPE & Standard Precautions
Studies: CHG Disk Shows Strong Potential to Fight Infection

Clinicians need every infection-preventing trick they can possibly get, but the “tricks,” of course, need to be proven in studies and experience before they are touted. One such tool that seems to have proven its way is BIOPATCH,® a disk that so far seems ...More
July 23, 2009 Posted in Articles
CHG is a Potent Weapon Against HAIs

One of the weapons in an infection preventionist’s arsenal is chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG), an antimicrobial agent used as a surgical scrub, hand antiseptic and dental rinse, depending upon the percentage used in the formulation. CHG is becoming ubiquitious in the ...More
July 23, 2009 Posted in Articles, Hand Hygiene
HCV Infection: Treatment Options Equally Effective, Likelihood of Success Known Early On

Results of a long-awaited study of 3,070 American adults at Johns Hopkins and 118 other U.S. medical centers show that treatment with either of the two standard antiviral drug therapies is safe and offers the best way for people infected with hepatitis C to prevent liver ...More
July 22, 2009 Posted in News
Syphilis Comeback Could Wipe Out Control Gains, Make Gonorrhea Resistant

Dr. David H. Martin, professor and chief of the Section of Infectious Diseases at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, updated reporters and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases on sexually transmitted diseases in the United States on July ...More
July 22, 2009 Posted in News, Disinfection & Sterilization
TB 'Tracker' to Speed Drug and Vaccine Studies

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a novel way to monitor in real time the behavior of the TB bacterium in mouse lungs noninvasively pinpointing the exact location of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The new monitoring system is expected to speed up what is currently a ...More
July 22, 2009 Posted in News
NIAID to Launch Clinical Trials to Test 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Candidates

Scientists in a network of medical research institutions across the United States are set to begin a series of clinical trials to gather critical data about influenza vaccines, including two candidate H1N1 flu vaccines. The research will be under the direction of the ...More
July 22, 2009 Posted in News
No Evidence That Combined DTP-HBV-Hib Vaccine Works Better

There is no evidence that giving infants a combination vaccine for diphtheria (D), tetanus (T), pertussis (P), hepatitis B (HBV), and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) protects them as effectively as separate vaccines, according to the results of a new Cochrane ...More
July 22, 2009 Posted in News
Antimicrobial Effectiveness Of Medical-Grade Honey in Topical Wound Care

According to a recent paper published in the European Journal of Clinical Microbiological Infectious Diseases, a certain kind of honey can be an effective agent in topical wound care, particularly where antibiotic resistance is an issue. The irony is that this most exciting ...More
July 22, 2009 Posted in News