Infection Control Today Magazine

Clinical Laboratories

Rare Emerging Disease Claims Texas Girl's Leg; PCR Plus Sequencing Identifies Culprit

A 14-year-old Texas girl was finally cured of an often-fatal emerging disease when doctors amputed her lower leg, where the infection arose, after various antimicrobials proved ineffective. The culprit was Pythium insidiosum, a fungus-like microbe which rarely causes ...More
April 16, 2012
Posted in News
Collaboration Needed to Facilitate Rapid Response to HAIs, Survey Says

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimates that about one in every 20 patients develops an infection each year related to their hospital care. The key to preventing an outbreak of potentially deadly healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) -- such as ...More
March 8, 2012
Posted in News, Policies and Practice
ACLA Voices Concern Over Proposal to Cut Medicare Reimbursement for Clinical Lab Services

The proposal now under consideration by the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee to slash Medicare reimbursement rates for clinical laboratory services as part of a broader effort to fix the Medicare physician-payment system would threaten the economic survival of many ...More
September 16, 2011
Posted in News
Reports Highlight Evolving Role of Clinical Microbiology Laboratories

With the increasing availability of sophisticated technologies to rapidly diagnose and treat infectious diseases, the duties and the role of clinical laboratory microbiologists, who traditionally perform these tests, could see significant changes in the next few years. That ...More
September 8, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
New CDC-Developed Diagnostic Lab Test for Flu Approved

A laboratory diagnostic kit to diagnose human infections with seasonal influenza viruses and novel influenza A viruses with pandemic potential has been authorized for use by Food and Drug Administration. The in-vitro, or IVD, kit was developed by the Centers for Disease ...More
September 2, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Study Shows 50 Percent More C. diff Cases Identified by Molecular Lab Technology

A study from the microbiology lab at the Lifespan hospitals has found that some lab tests are much more accurate in identifying Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), which causes diarrhea. The findings indicate that a molecular method detects up to 50 percent more cases of ...More
July 5, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Clinical Microbiology, Infection Prevention Team Up to Fight HAIs

To understand where clinical microbiology is going in the future, it's helpful to take a quick trip back in history. Years ago, the Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control project established the scientific basis for claims of efficacy of hospital-acquired ...More
April 11, 2011
Posted in Articles
BD Diagnostics, Bruker Collaborate to Improve Microbial ID, Antimicrobial Susceptability Testing

BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), and Bruker Daltonics Inc., a subsidiary of Bruker Corporation, announced today an international co-development and co-marketing collaboration that will promote an emerging, integrated approach to bacterial and ...More
September 29, 2010
Posted in News
Collaboration Fuels Multifaceted Approach to Early Treatment Decisions for Patients With BSIs

Early decisions regarding treatment for patients with bloodstream infections (BSIs) made by properly trained and accredited clinicians with timely access to the most up-to-date laboratory data is essential, writes Alida Fe Talento, MD, of the Department of Microbiology at ...More
August 30, 2010
Posted in News
Labs Busy with H1N1 Testing

Dr. Jan Nowak, president of the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), presented comments today at the CDC’s Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee meeting on the experience of molecular pathology laboratories confirming cases of novel H1N1 ...More
September 2, 2009
Posted in News