All News

January 18, 2021

If quick action isn’t taken, then the highly infectious B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19 will become the main variant in the United States by March, further burdening our already overburdened health care system.

January 17, 2021

Infection preventionists need to educate primary health providers on the importance of utilizing monoclonal antibodies to prevent hospitalizations from severe COVID-19.

January 15, 2021

Linda Spaulding RN, BC, CIC, CHEC, CHOP: “There’s not enough literature out there yet to say that once you get the vaccine, you won’t get COVID again, and the literature that is out there says that once you get the vaccine, even if you don’t get COVID again, you can still be an asymptomatic carrier.”

January 14, 2021

It’s possible that infection preventionists and other health care workers who caught COVID-19 in the first wave can be reinfected.

January 13, 2021

Many members of environmental service teams feel underappreciated and these health care professionals are not trained in any systematic and continuous way, a study states.

January 13, 2021

Within the South African COVID strain scientists have found what they’re calling an “escape mutation” named E484K. It’s feared that this escape mutation will do just what the name implies—allow 501.V2 to escape vaccine antibodies.

January 12, 2021

Cedric Steiner: “But the nursing home…. One could make an argument that [infection control is] more important there in some ways, because you have those residents in smaller spaces."

January 12, 2021

Assume that everybody in a hospital setting is an asymptomatic carrier of COVID-19, two recent studies suggest.

January 11, 2021

The coming months will be telling in terms of how we approach quarantine and the implications of shortened quarantine periods. While it might be easier for people to adhere to, there is still concern for disease transmission.

January 11, 2021

For vaccines: Delivery doesn’t mean distribution. For variants: Their appearance underscores the importance of infection prevention methods.

January 07, 2021

Linda Spaulding RN, BC, CIC, CHEC, CHOP: “Infection preventionists need to learn how to clean an endoscope, or at least observe the cleaning…. Infection preventionists need to make rounds, they need to talk to the person processing.”

January 06, 2021

Kevin Kavanagh, MD: “One of the things that’s really frustrated me with this epidemic and pandemic is that people are totally focused on dying…. But in actuality, the disabilities are much, much more concerning because that is even affecting the young people.”

January 06, 2021

Yesterday, 3775 people died from COVID-19; that’s the highest single-day death total since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. According to the COVID Tracking Project, 131,135 people were hospitalized yesterday for COVID-19, another single-day record.

January 05, 2021

The US and the world must appreciate the role of the pharmaceutical industry—the investigators, physicians and business leaders—who are rescuing the world from COVID-19. It’s the medical breakthrough of our lifetime.

January 04, 2021

Infection preventionists need to spread the message and articulate the uncertainties of this new variant of COVID-19. They need to emphasize that it is just not the old who are at risk and employ stricter containment measures.

January 04, 2021

Just how much more serious of a threat South Africa’s 501Y.V2 COVID variant represents has yet to be definitively answered, but British health officials argue that it’s much worse than the UK’s B117.

December 31, 2020

2021 will likely mean a mixture of things for infection preventionists (IPs). First, a focused effort on vaccine education. While this is a larger effort, IPs have always played a significant role in education and answering questions while rounding on the units and clinics.

December 31, 2020

Maureen Vowles: “I think that the relationship between infection preventionists and public health is key to the success of preventing CRAB and other multi-drug resistant organisms.”

December 30, 2020

Kristy Warren: “We need to do everything we can to help protect our providers when performing these aerosol generating procedures. And subsequently those providers that enter the room or exit the room after these procedures have occurred.”

December 29, 2020

Paula J. Olsiewski, PhD: “Healthcare workers at hospitals are always concerned about the air because historically, we know many disease agents are transmitted through the air, whether it’s measles or tuberculosis. Those appear on the scene long before COVID-19.”