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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) maintains systems of oversight as part of its general mission to strengthen and modernize healthcare in the United States. Monitoring systems are a crucial component in CMS’s mission, factoring into all four of its strategic goals of better care and lower costs, prevention and population health, expanded healthcare coverage, and enterprise excellence.

Even if they appear clean, your hands can be a vehicle for spreading potentially deadly foodborne illnesses and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). To reduce the transmission of pathogens, proper and regular hand care is key. Equally important is creating accountability around hand hygiene among employees.  But are we focusing too much of the discussion on which pathogens are killed and in how many seconds?  Are these facts convincing employees to increase handwashing and the use of hand sanitizer at critical moments? Unfortunately, the current approach isn’t as effective as it could be. And without compliance, these disease-causing microorganisms remain on hands. Uncovering factors that increase compliance can help protect employees, building visitors and an organization’s brand.

Saint Louis University’s vaccine center has been tapped by the National Institutes of Health to conduct a human clinical trial of a vaccine to prevent the Zika virus, which can cause devastating birth defects in babies.

What used to take several weeks is now possible in two days: thanks to new molecular-based methods, mycobacterial pathogens that cause pulmonary infections or tuberculosis can now be detected much more quickly. Time-consuming bacteria cultures no longer need to be taken from the patient samples, meaning that a suitable therapy can be started quickly.

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS, in collaboration with Imperial College London and the University of Vienna, Austria, have identified antibodies that can efficiently neutralize both the dengue virus and the Zika virus. The description of the binding site for these antibodies on the viral envelope, identical for both viruses, could lead to the development of a universal vaccine that offers simultaneous protection against dengue and Zika virus disease. These results were published in the journal Nature on June 23, 2016.

The first global mapping of artemisinin resistance (the KARMA study) has definitively confirmed that resistance to the main drug currently used in the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria is for the moment confined to Southeast Asia and has not spread to sub-Saharan Africa. Led by researchers from both the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, KARMA gathers a large consortium of institutions including 13 members of the Institut Pasteur International Network. The findings were published June 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Loyola University Chicago scientists have solved a mystery that has long baffled HIV researchers: How does HIV manage to enter the nucleus of immune system cells? The discovery, reported in the journal PLOS Pathogens, could lead to effective new drugs to treat HIV/AIDS, said Edward M. Campbell, PhD, corresponding author of the study. Campbell is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Researchers from the University of Chicago have shown that microbiota-the bacteria, viruses and other microbes living on the skin and in the digestive system-play an important role in the body’s ability to accept transplanted skin and other organs.

Promoting the value of infection prevention programs and securing the resources necessary to ensure the continued viability of such programs has become an imperative for the infection preventionist (IP) in the era of healthcare reform and increased demands on IPs' time. A new guidance document aims to provide an updated assessment of the resources and requirements for an effective infection prevention and control/healthcare epidemiology (IPC/HE) program.

From the front of the hospital classroom I saw the indifferent stares of 30 nurse residents. These first year nurses were participating in an employer sponsored program to facilitate their transition into clinical role as well as to support retention which is often unfortunately poor during this critical period in a professional RN career. However well-intended the residency program was, the lack of enthusiasm for my upcoming infection prevention update was unmistakable. As a long-time infection preventionist (IP), this was not particularly surprising, as few trainees seek out prevention content unless there is an imminent threat or some other infectious crisis. Overcoming such learner apathy – including the anticipated “we’ve heard this all before” attitude – is endemic to the infection prevention educational environment.