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Capitalizing on the momentum created by a 2010 conference, a new consensus statement released this spring focuses on the future of the prevention of needlesticks and other sharps-related injuries and creates a road map for achieving improved occupational health and safety among healthcare workers.

Today on Medscape, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) experts Drs. Raymund Dante and Alice Guh provide step-by-step guidance for healthcare professionals that can help protect their patients by preventing the transmission of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in their facilities. CRE are resistant to almost all drugs and can contribute to death in 40 percent of patients who become infected. Not only are these organisms associated with high mortality rates, but they have the potential to spread quickly.

Selenium is an inexpensive element that naturally belongs in the body. It is also known to combat bacteria. Still, it had not been tried as an antibiotic coating on a medical device material. In a new study, Brown University engineers report that when they used selenium nanoparticles to coat polycarbonate, the material of catheters and endotracheal tubes, the results were significant reductions in cultured populations of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, sometimes by as much as 90 percent.