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When a whole country's public health is at stake, making the wrong policy choices can cost lives and money. That's why researchers have worked to develop computer simulations of epidemics that can model individual behaviors and interactions to predict the spread of disease and the efficacy of interventions.

Consumers are one step closer to benefiting from packaging that could give simple text warnings when food is contaminated with deadly pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella, and patients could soon receive real-time diagnoses of infections such as C. difficile right in their doctors’ offices, saving critical time and trips to the lab. Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new way to print paper biosensors, simplifying the diagnosis of many bacterial and respiratory infections.

Teamwork and a multi-modal approach to infection prevention and control were the driving forces behind positive change and improved patient outcomes at several institutions that were honored in late 2014 by the Fine Foundation and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF). The Fine Awards for Teamwork Excellence in Health Care recognized frontline workers in the greater Pittsburgh, Pa. area who elevate and disseminate best practices in infection control - a quality measure that influences whether providers receive incentive payments or incur penalties from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

As the WHO emergency focal point for West Africa, whenever there is an emergency in the region, Dr. Ngoy Nsenga is one of the first to be deployed. Following confirmation of Ebola cases in Guinea, Nsenga went to Sierra Leone to help assess emergency response capacity. During his trip, the first signs of Ebola crossing the border were detected. Originally from DRC, Nsenga quickly realized that the few cases in Kailahun could quickly become a serious health emergency.

By engineering antibacterial enzymes, Dartmouth investigators led by Karl Griswold, PhD are using novel strategies to target the prevalent drug-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Recent papers in FEMS Microbiology Letters and Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology describe their findings from a genome mining effort seeking novel antibacterial agents. A third paper published in ACS Chemical Biology examines redesigned versions of human lysozyme, a broad-spectrum antibacterial enzyme.