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Accelerating WHO Emergency Response to Ebola Outbreak: Contact Tracing

It was humid, muddy and raining when World Health Organization (WHO) staff approached a compound in heavily populated New Kru Town, outside Monrovia, Liberia to look for people who have had contact with people infected with Ebola. A WHO technical adviser from Rwanda, sent in to help the zone coordinator, spoke to a woman who had cared for an Ebola patient. She understood the need to be monitored for the disease, but another man with whom the team talked denied knowing anyone with Ebola and refused further contact with the team.

Understanding Long-Term Care's Unique Challenges

With the U.S. healthcare reform mandate for increasing transparency and improved quality, the need for infection prevention and control in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) is becoming more critical than ever before for the more than 3 million Americans receiving geriatric care in U.S. annually. In January, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) published the Infection Preventionist’s Guide to Long-Term Care to assist facilities in creating and implementing comprehensive infection prevention programs.

Bacterial Respiratory Tract Colonization Prior to Catching Flu May Protect Against Severe Illness

Many studies have shown that more severe illness and even death are likely to result if you develop a secondary respiratory infection after developing influenza. Now, however, a team of researchers based at The Wistar Institute has determined that if you reverse the order of infection, the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae (often called pneumococcus) may actually protect against a bad case of the flu.

Scientist Finds Link Between Antibiotics, Bacterial Biofilms and Chronic Infections

Researchers from the University of Southern California and the Oak Crest Institute of Science have discovered the link between antibiotics and bacterial biofilm formation leading to chronic lung, sinus and ear infections. The study results, published in the current issue of PLOS ONE, illustrate how bacterial biofilms can actually thrive, rather than decrease, when given low doses of antibiotics.

WHO Supports Ministry of Health Community Education to Contain Ebola Virus Disease in Liberia

Community leaders in three counties in Liberia – Montserrado, Margibi, and Lofa – are receiving information sessions on Ebola as part of the effort to contain the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to conduct these sessions on the basics of the disease, how it is transmitted and what people can do to help authorities contain the disease. In the orientation sessions, printed materials are distributed and footage is shown on topics such as treatment and holding centers and proper burial of the dead.