News

Whooping cough has made an astonishing comeback, with 2012 seeing nearly 50,000 infections in the U.S. (the most since 1955), and a death rate in infants three times that of the rest of the population. The dramatic resurgence has puzzled public health officials, who have pointed to the waning effectiveness of the current vaccine and growing anti-vaccine sentiment as the most likely culprits.

Moa Wharf is one of Sierra Leone’s worst slums. In this overcrowded, beachfront neighborhood, Ebola arrived and seemed poised to burn through the area like wildfire. So how did one of the most challenging areas in Sierra Leone get to zero cases and how can the Ebola response learn from its success? Moa Wharf is a cluster of congested, tightly-packed corrugated iron and brick homes and shops. The passageways are narrow and crowded. Residents and visitors find themselves in close, intimate contact as they navigate swampy land and heaps of refuse. Pigs run loose on the streets, rooting through the garbage and adding their waste to an already fetid situation. So how did the area with one of the most challenging and daunting environments manage to reach zero cases?

This digital issue explores the challenges associated with proper cleaning and disinfection in the sterile processing department (SPD).

As part of their long-term investigation of regulatory factors in the bacterial cell cycle, molecular biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst now report finding a surprising new role for one factor, CpdR, an adaptor that helps to regulate selective protein destruction, the main control mechanism of cell cycle progression in bacteria, at specific times.

A Purdue University-led team of researchers studying the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), have found molecules that shut down the activity of an essential enzyme in the virus and could lead the way to better treatments for those infected.

The family of Bernard Lansana Soumah never expected to experience Ebola. When Bernard’s wife, Macire, became infected, they realized Ebola was real. Today, Bernard and Macire are among the lucky ones and they are vigilant in watching for signs of infection among those in their community while also providing a message of survival and hope.

To predict how a seasonal influenza epidemic will spread across the United States, one should focus more on the mobility of people than on their geographic proximity, a new study suggests. PLOS Pathogens published the analysis of transportation data and flu cases conducted by Emory University biologists. Their results mark the first time genetic patterns for the spread of flu have been detected at the scale of the continental United States.

Infection prevention is a constantly changing field. Tremendous challenges face the infection preventionist (IP), including new emerging and re-emerging diseases, antibiotic resistant organisms, serious; often life-threatening diseases such as C. difficile, public reporting of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policies to limit payment for hospital-acquired conditions and complications.