Infection Control Today Magazine

Outbreak Investigation

Norovirus is the Leading Cause of Outbreaks in U.S. Hospitals

Norovirus, a pathogen that often causes food poisoning and gastroenteritis, was responsible for 18.2 percent of all infection outbreaks and 65 percent of ward closures in U.S. hospitals during a two-year period, according to a new study published in the February 2012 issue ...More
2 weeks ago
Posted in News, Hand Hygiene
Bacterial Genes Tell the Tale of an Outbreak's Evolution

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have retraced the evolution of an unusual bacterial infection as it spread among cystic fibrosis patients by sequencing scores of samples collected during the outbreak, since contained. A significant ...More
November 11, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Google Earth Typhoid Maps Reveal Secrets of Disease Outbreaks

In the mid-19th century, John Snow mapped cases of cholera in Soho, London, and traced the source of the outbreak to a contaminated water pump. Now, in a 21st-century equivalent, scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust working in Kathmandu, Nepal, have combined the latest ...More
October 17, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
FDA Investigates Multi-State Outbreak of Listeriosis

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health agencies to investigate a multi-state outbreak of listeriosis. At least 15 people infected with the outbreak strain of Listeria ...More
September 13, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Genomics Used to Find Source of Haitian Cholera Outbreak

Employing technology that reads the entire DNA code, researchers led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Technical University of Denmark have pinpointed the source of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed more than 6,000 people and sickened 300,000. ...More
August 23, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Hospital Bacteria Outbreak Linked to Nasal Spray

Infection control researchers investigating a rare bacterial outbreak of Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) identified contaminated nasal spray as the root cause of the infections, leading to a national recall of the product. An article in the August issue of Infection ...More
July 21, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Evaluating Efficacy of Control Measures for Disease Outbreaks

The transmission of infectious disease amongst the human population is a complex process which requires advanced, often individual-based, models to capture the space-time details observed in reality. Yong Yang of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan, ...More
July 19, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Genomics and Social Network Analysis Team Up to Solve Disease Outbreaks

Combining the cutting-edge technology of whole genome sequencing of bacteria with social networking analysis, public health officials can get a more detailed picture of disease outbreaks that will better help track and stop them, say researchers at the 111th General Meeting ...More
May 20, 2011
Posted in News
Using Geographic Profiling for Targeting Infectious Disease

Geographic profiling is a statistical tool originally developed in criminology to prioritize large lists of suspects in cases of serial crime. Steven C. Le Comber, of Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, report on their use of two data sets -- one historical and ...More
May 18, 2011
Posted in News
Anatomy of an Outbreak

What causes a virus to suddenly begin infecting large numbers of people? Scientists have long known that the process they call "viral emergence" involves a wide variety of factors. Some are changes in the environment, either generated by natural causes or human ...More
May 6, 2011
Posted in News

featured links

HOT TOPICS