Fighting infectious disease, the very heart of public health and the genesis of contemporary nursing, is about more than handwashing and immunizations. It’s about screening and early detection, identifying risk and protective factors, and educating clinicians, facilities and the public. But it all begins with research, like that underway by nurse researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON). Their work is more important now than it has been in nearly the past century. Infectious disease rates, stable since the 1918 influenza pandemic, have been on the rise since the mid-1980s. The battle against these illnesses—from HIV/AIDS to MRSA and from STDs to resurgent tuberculosis (TB), and others—has been escalating, and long before the recent emergence of the H1N1 influenza virus earlier this year.
For JHUSON nurse researchers, the communities around the corner and around the world are their infectious disease laboratories. JHUSON faculty research, for example, is shedding light on curbing sexually transmitted infections and their physical and emotional repercussions on college campuses. It also is exploring best practices to curtail the spread of resurgent diseases like tuberculosis and reducing the impact of treatment resistant infections like MRSA both within and beyond the hospital setting. The community-based inquiry not only is yielding new knowledge but also, when coupled with its translation into clinical education and practice, is helping to save lives today and to be better prepared to save them in an uncertain future.
JHUSON researcher, assistant professor and self-professed “infection control preventionist” Jason Farley, PhD, MPH, ARNP, is working to give nurse colleagues and other health care professionals the research-based tools they need to identify, prevent, and destroy drug-resistant infections in hospitals and in communities from Maryland to South Africa. Growing rates of drug-resistant infections like tuberculosis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), coupled with recent H1N1 pandemic concerns, make his work most timely. His MRSA-related research not only has documented its evolution from a hospital problem into a community and public health concern, but also has given health providers.
