News

Targeting serious and sometimes deadly fungal infections, a team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) has discovered a chemical compound that prevents fungal cells from adhering to surfaces, which, typically, is the first step of the infection process used by the human pathogen Candida albicans (C. albicans).

A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists led by Monica Borucki of LLNL's Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, has made promising new discoveries that provide insight into the emergence of inter-species transmittable viruses.

New guidelines from the National Health Safety Network (NHSN) are changing the way hospitals report ventilator-associated events, including complications and pneumonia, says Linda R. Greene, RN, MPS, CIC, a member of the board for the Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC). She was also a member of the CDC working group that helped shape the current surveillance definition algorithm for reporting VAEs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports historically high levels of Clostridium difficile infections in healthcare settings, attributing around 14,000 patient deaths each year to the hospital-acquired infection. Those at the most risk are elderly people who are in the hospital and on antibiotics. Antimicrobial stewardship programs multidisciplinary efforts to measure and regulate the use of antimicrobials are key to helping healthcare organizations reduce the risk of encountering multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) like C. diff.