“Superbug” infections linked to newer models of duodenoscopes featuring a sealed channel design were first recognized in 2012. This article provides a review of the published medical literature and of the FDA’s medical-device database to evaluate...
Group B strep (group B streptococcus or GBS) is a common bacteria present in the vagina of about 1 in 4 women. In the U.S. and other developed countries, pregnant women are tested for GBS with those who test positive given antibiotics to help...
Clostridium difficile infection is the most common hospital-acquired infection and a significant cause of increased hospital stay and cost for patients and payors alike. In the May issue of Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, surgeons from George...
Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a genetic screening tool that identified two key factors that allow the influenza virus to infect human lung cells. The technique uses new gene editing tools to create a library of modified...
Amer, et al. (2018) assessed the transmission risks of MERS-CoV infection to healthcare workers (HCWs) in an outbreak in Riyadh. All HCWs with unprotected exposure to confirmed cases were tested after 24 hours of exposure. Two negative...
The emergence of antibiotic resistance among dangerous pathogens is increasingly problematic worldwide. Many strains of infectious bacteria have become multidrug-resistant, and cannot be treated with common antibiotic therapies. While the...
Below the surface of systems as large and ancient as an ocean and as small and new as a human baby are communities of viruses and bacteria that interact to influence everything from worldwide oxygen levels to the likelihood a newborn will fall ill...
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral disease spread by ticks in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. Infection with CCHF virus is fatal in nearly one of every three cases. No specific treatments or vaccines for CCHF...
A new study by Althea Campuzano, PhD, a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Floyd Wormley, Jr., professor of biology and senior associate dean for research and graduate studies, sheds light on little-known fungal infections...
It is only logical that we must add enhanced environmental pathogen-elimination practices to our infection prevention strategic bundles. To address this new era of fewer and fewer effective treatments for infection, we must take the next logical...
