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A startling number of Americans may be putting their health at risk by not practicing good hand hygiene. When asked about their specific handwashing habits, a vast majority of adults (71 percent) say they regularly wash their hands, but that number may be grossly exaggerated. Nearly 6 in 10 (58 percent) admit that they have witnessed others leaving a public restroom without washing their hands. More than one-third of Americans (35 percent) have witnessed co-workers leaving facilities without washing, and 1 in 5 consumers surveyed (20 percent) have witnessed restaurant employees not washing their hands at all. The worst offenders seem to be men by a significant margin.

Infection Control Today spoke with Mary J. Ogg, MSN, RN, CNOR, a perioperative nursing specialist with the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), regarding sharps safety-related issues in the operating room.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says that more U.S. workers are injured in the healthcare industry than any other. This sector has one of the highest rates of work-related injuries and illnesses, and in 2010, it reported 653,900 injury and illness cases. Also for that year, the latest year for which data are available, OSHA says the incidence rate for work-related nonfatal injuries and illnesses in healthcare was 139.9; by comparison, the incidence rate for nonfatal injury and illnesses in all private industry was 107.7. That's a lot of injuries and illness despite the fact that the General Duty Clause of the legislation that created OSHA requires employers to provide workers with a safe workplace that does not have any known hazards that cause or are likely to cause death or serious injury.

A renewed interest in the healthcare environment and to what degree surface contamination contributes to the spread of infectious pathogens is driving a growing body of research in this area. The following article will take a look at what we know about various aspects of environmental hygiene from the scientific literature.

A $21 million grant will help researchers at the University of Michigan Health System better understand the HIV virus on a molecular level, potentially paving the way for new treatment approaches to AIDS and other diseases.