Infection Control Today Magazine

Active Surveillance Cultures (ASC)

Active Surveillance, Cleaning Cut Staph Infections in the Surgical ICU

Infection and colonization with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Researchers from Changi General Hospital in Singapore sought to study the impact of active surveillance cultures (ASC), environmental ...More
July 6, 2011
Posted in News, Environmental Hygiene
Control Measures Helped Prevent Spread of CRKP

Matan J. Cohen, MD, MPH, of the Center for Clinical Quality and Safety at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem, and colleagues, report in the latest issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology that patient cohorting, supplemented by widespread ...More
June 21, 2011
Posted in News, PPE & Standard Precautions
VA Infection Control Practices Featured in New England Journal of Medicine

A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiative that reduced the global healthcare issue of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections by more than 60 percent in intensive care units (ICU) across the nation is featured in the latest issue of the New ...More
April 14, 2011
Posted in News, Hand Hygiene, PPE & Standard Precautions
Active Surveillance, Barrier Precautions Have Little Effect on Bacterial Spread

A new research study of the effect of a commonly used strategy to reduce the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospital intensive care units (ICU) shows that the strategy had no significant effect. That’s the surprising finding of a multisite study led by Mayo ...More
April 13, 2011
Posted in News, PPE & Standard Precautions
MRSA's Evolving Epidemiology

Fred Gordin, MD, of the Infectious Diseases Section of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Washington, D.C., reports on the evolving epidemiology of MRSA in a commentary in the September issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Gordin says that at his ...More
September 1, 2010
Posted in News
Active Surveillance, Decolonization Associated With Decreased HAIs

Fraser TG, et al. (2010) note a relationship between colonization and bacteremia, so they sought to evaluate the effects of an active surveillance program for Staphylococcus aureus linked to a decolonization protocol on the incidence of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) ...More
August 16, 2010
Posted in News
Cepheid Recalls MRSA Blood Culture Product

Cepheid is recalling all lots of Xpert MRSA/SA BC (blood culture) product. ...More
July 7, 2010
Posted in News
Active Surveillance Testing vs. Conventional Infection Control Measures

As we saw in part one of this two-part series, the topic of active surveillance cultures (ASC) is a controversial one, with critics of the practice pointing to its expense, tying scarce infection prevention resources to one pathogen and the potential for adverse outcomes ...More
April 15, 2010
Posted in Articles, Hand Hygiene, PPE & Standard Precautions
One IP's Take on Active Surveillance Testing

Shannon Oriola, RN, CIC, COHN, the department lead for infection prevention and clinical epidemiology at the Sharp Metropolitan Medical Campus in San Diego, discusses her experience with active surveillance testing (AST) in the wake of the September 2008 passage of SB 1058, ...More
April 15, 2010
Posted in Articles, PPE & Standard Precautions
Input on Active Surveillance Cultures from the Community

We asked ICT readers what they do relating to active surveillance cultures. Here are their responses: “We are a tiny facility in the smallest county with the least population in the least populated state. We have not tested those who come into our facility. For us it ...More
April 15, 2010
Posted in Articles, PPE & Standard Precautions