Lab on a Chip Could Monitor Health, Germs and Pollutants
June 12th 2017Imagine wearing a device that continuously analyzes your sweat or blood for different types of biomarkers, such as proteins that show you may have breast cancer or lung cancer. Rutgers engineers have invented biosensor technology – known as a lab on a chip – that could be used in hand-held or wearable devices to monitor your health and exposure to dangerous bacteria, viruses and pollutants.
Infection Prevention and Control Program Management Gets Boost from New Guidelines
June 12th 2017The healthcare landscape is, of course, very different today than it was 40 years ago, when a landmark study first called for the involvement of an individual tasked with paying attention to infections in the hospital environment. As Dhar, et al. (2016) observe, "Infection prevention programs (IPP), now a standard in healthcare, saw their inception in the1970s and 1980s after studies (such as the CDC’s Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control [SENIC]) showed a 32 percent reduction in HAIs in hospitals with established programs compared with the 18 percent increases in infection in hospitals without." In the ensuing years, the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System for voluntary reporting of surveillance data was created, the Joint Commission has introduced accreditation into the picture, and, as Dhar, et al. (2016) point out, "Since this time, there have been several groups that have had direct influence on the development of IPP ranging from professional societies, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and payors. This complex landscape for infection prevention has led to the development of quality initiatives, legislative reforms, shifts in payment for HAIs, and an increased demand for transparency through public reporting of HAI data."
APIC's MegaSurvey Chronicles the Profession's Progress, Future Direction
June 12th 2017The perspectives of more than 4,000 infection preventionists (IPs) have been captured by the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in its MegaSurvey conducted in 2015 to chronicle the progress that the profession is making in developing strategies to support comprehensive infection prevention practice.
Bats are the Major Reservoir of Coronaviruses Worldwide
June 12th 2017Results of a five-year study in 20 countries on three continents have found that bats harbor a large diversity of coronaviruses (CoV), the family of viruses that cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS). Findings from the study--led by scientists in the USAID-funded PREDICT project at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the University of California, Davis' One Health Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine--are published in the journal Virus Evolution. PREDICT is a globally coordinated effort to detect and discover viruses of pandemic potential and reduce risk for future epidemics.
IP Stakeholders Series: Chief Nursing Officers
June 12th 2017The engagement of key organizational senior leaders in infection prevention and control is essential to ensure optimal patient care and to promote quality throughout the healthcare institution. One such stakeholder is the chief nursing officer (CNO), with whom the organization's infection preventionist(s) should cultivate a collegial relationship. As IPs monitor how healthcare workers implement infection prevention and control-related principles and practices, the CNO can help ensuring resource and both clinical and administrative leadership support as the foundation to successfully implement these prevention measures. As Nelson, et al. (2011) observe, "Leaders play a pivotal role in hospital initiatives to improve quality … It is essential for those personnel in leadership to work collaboratively in order to not only enhance healthcare environments but also make it safer for patients."
Transporting and Protecting Reprocessed Devices
June 12th 2017Q: We reprocess vaginal specs for some local doctors' offices. I recently learned that once the office staff receives the instruments, they are then opening up the individual sterile peel pouches and then place the “unprotected” vaginal speculums into the exam table to be ready for use by the provider. Is there anything we can purchase to use for transportation purposes that will save us time and money and skip the sterilization process of these items?A: This is an excellent question, especially with many sterile processing departments (SPDs) now processing devices for offsite clinics and doctors' offices. Vaginal speculums fall under the semi-critical devices category (Spaulding).
Education, Certification Boost Performance of Sterile Processing Professionals
June 12th 2017ICT spoke with Karen Swanson LPN, CSPM, CFER, manager of the central sterile department at Connecticut Children's Medical Center and chairman of the board of directors of the Certification Board for Sterile Processing (CBSPD), regarding the challenges that face sterile processing professionals and the importance of building key skill sets.
NIH Funds NYC Center for AIDS Research
June 12th 2017The National Institutes of Health has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Rockefeller University, The City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY), a $7.5 million grant for the Center for AIDS Research focused on preventing HIV transmission and ending the AIDS epidemic.
Researchers Identify How Class of Drugs Blocks Hepatitis C Virus Replication
June 8th 2017Globally, an estimated 71 million people are living with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Over decades of infection, chronic HCV infection results in progressive damage to the liver and an increased risk for end stage liver disease and liver cancer, making the virus the leading cause of liver-related deaths in the United States today. While effective combination therapies have recently been developed, HCV can evolve to become resistant to these antiviral drugs, potentially resulting in treatment failures. Resistance is particularly important for one class of medications used in treatment, for which the mechanism by which it stops growth of the virus is poorly understood. For the first time, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified how the class of antiviral drugs known as NS5A inhibitors interacts with the virus, and their findings show a difference between strains of HCV. These results were published in PLOS Pathogens.
Researchers Identify Immune Component Up-Regulated in Brain After Viral Infection
June 8th 2017A new study of infection by a virus that causes brain inflammation and seizures in a mouse model has shown increased levels of complement component C3. The C3 was produced by immune cells in the brain called microglia within the first few days after infection. C3 showed the greatest increase in expression in the brain compared to a variety of other complement components, cytokines, chemokines, and antigens measured in the study that is published in Viral Immunology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
WHO Responds to Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo
June 7th 2017Multidisciplinary teams face numerous challenges as they respond to an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the remote, forested regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners are supporting the country’s Ministry of Health in all aspects of the response, including epidemiological investigation, surveillance, logistics and supplies, communications, and community engagement.
New Pediatric Protocol Reduces Missed Sepsis Diagnoses in Children by 76 Percent
June 7th 2017An electronic sepsis alert using a combination of vital signs, risk factors and physician judgment to identify children in a pediatric emergency department with severe sepsis reduced missed diagnoses by 76 percent. The results of the study, along with an accompanying editorial, were published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Improving Recognition of Pediatric Severe Sepsis in the Emergency Department: Contributions of a Vital Sign-Based Electronic Alert and Bedside Clinician Identification" and "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Use of Real-Time Tools to Identify Children with Severe Sepsis in the Pediatric Emergency Department").
Tulane Researchers Help Find Possible Explanation for Unparalleled Spread of Ebola Virus
June 7th 2017The world may be closer to knowing why Ebola spreads so easily thanks to a team of researchers from Tulane University and other leading institutions who discovered a new biological activity in a small protein from the deadly virus. The team's findings were recently published in the Journal of Virology.
WHO Updates Essential Medicines List With New Advice on Antibiotics Use
June 6th 2017New advice on which antibiotics to use for common infections and which to preserve for the most serious circumstances is among the additions to the World Health Organization (WHO) model list of essential medicines for 2017. Other additions include medicines for HIV, hepatitis C, tuberculosis and leukemia.
NIAID-Sponsored Trial of Experimental Chikungunya Vaccine Begins
June 6th 2017A clinical trial of an experimental vaccine to prevent infection with chikungunya virus is now enrolling healthy adult volunteers at three sites in the United States. The Phase 1/2 trial, which is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is being conducted at several NIAID-funded Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units. The candidate vaccine, MV-CHIKV, was developed by Themis Bioscience of Vienna, Austria.
Gut Bacteria Could Protect Cancer Patients and Pregnant Women from Listeria, Study Suggests
June 6th 2017Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York have discovered that bacteria living in the gut provide a first line of defense against severe Listeria infections. The study, which will be published June 6 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that providing these bacteria in the form of probiotics could protect individuals who are particularly susceptible to Listeria, including pregnant women and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.