News

The World Health Organization (WHO) today published the new edition of its Model List of Essential Medicines which includes ground-breaking new treatments for hepatitis C, a variety of cancers and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB), among others. The move opens the way to improve access to innovative medicines that show clear clinical benefits and could have enormous public health impact globally.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology today issued a statement following a report in the New England Journal of Medicine about an Ebola patient with uveitis, a type of eye inflammation common in Ebola survivors. The academy is reiterating that the findings do not indicate an increased risk of Ebola infection to the general public through casual contact.

New research has identified correlations between weather conditions and the occurrence of West Nile virus disease in the United States, raising the possibility of being able to better predict outbreaks.

In 2009, healthcare leaders and experts began to focus more intensely on the risks associated with the improper processing (cleaning, disinfection and/or sterilization) of reusable medical devices and equipment. Within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital system, the Memphis VA Medical Center (MVAMC) and other facilities initiated corrective actions to fine tune reprocessing policies, particularly those related to critical and semi-critical devices, to ensure compliance with manufacturers’ instructions for use. Since then, ensuring adequate device reprocessing has continued to be a concern for regulators, providers and medical device manufacturers. Ongoing discussions have led to direction such as an FDA draft guidance document for device manufacturers (FDA, 2011), and a report from the medical device reprocessing summit hosted jointly by AAMI and FDA (AAMI, 2011).

With the threat of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens growing, new ideas to treat infections are sorely needed. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report preliminary success testing an entirely novel approach - tagging bacteria with a molecular “homing beacon” that attracts pre-existing antibodies to attack the pathogens. The study is published by the Journal of Molecular Medicine.

Gary W. Procop, MD, FCAP, a fellow of the College of American Pathologists, explains that measles is characterized by the three Cs: cough, coryza and conjunctivitis. This is followed by a maculopapular rash that usually develops 14 days after the child is exposed, spreading from head to trunk and then to the extremities. When the rash appears, the measles virus can spread.

Slips, trips, falls and sharps are widely recognized as potential occupational risks in the healthcare industry.  However, there is another dangerous hazard that often goes unnoticed and underreported-splashes.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has donated the published proceedings from conferences on sterilization of medical products to the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), which will make the material available online as a complimentary service to the sterilization community.