HAIs

The Infection Control Today® health care-acquired infections (HAIs) page presents updates on the latest techniques and strategies in the never-ending battle between infection preventionists and HAIs. Focusing on the latest in medical literature, we also present perspectives from the top infection preventionists and other medical experts in the country about how to put the growing knowledge of HAIs into use in the everyday world of infection prevention. Articles and videos often focus on methods to contain and control pathogens and multidrug-resistant organisms from spreading within the health care system.

Infection Preventionists Will Be Needed Even More After COVID

March 31, 2021

Priya Nori, MD: “The immediate thing that the health care industry has to grapple with, even as COVID hopefully starts to settle down after the mass vaccination campaign … [will be] superbugs.”

Pathogens Underfoot Can Floor Patients, Health Care Workers

March 28, 2021

Evidence shows that bacteria on floors can be resuspended into the air with a potential of inhalation, swallowing, or contamination of surfaces and hands.

Antibiotic Stewardship Programs Need Infection Preventionists

March 23, 2021

Arjun Srinivasan, MD: “There’s a lot of potential for synergy between the infection prevention program and the antibiotic stewardship program.”

Nurses Most Likely to Spread Microbes, Says Study

March 23, 2021

Investigators propose that their simulation models can be used in educating nurses and other health care professionals about how best to maintain good hand hygiene, and also where best to put alcohol-based hand disinfectants.

CDC Wants to Improve Antibiotic Overprescribing by Over 90%

March 18, 2021

No deadline was given for when these goals should be reached and some of the data to be used will depend on hospitals voluntarily releasing their numbers to the CDC.

Hot Topics: Ebola’s Comeback, and Bad Bottled Water

March 17, 2021

That an entirely new outbreak of Ebola would be triggered by a latent infection 5 to 6 years after the initial infection is deeply worrisome.

Universal Surveillance for COVID-19 Works for 1 Hospital

March 12, 2021

Investigators conclude that asymptomatic carriers increased the duration of the pandemic. Every patient should be tested for COVID-19.

Ready for the Next Pandemic? (Spoiler Alert: It’s Coming)

March 01, 2021

This may not be the best time to ask, “What’s next?” But…what’s next? What pathogen(s) not called COVID-19 should we be most concerned about? And where will it (they) be coming from?

Blue Light, Food Oils Combo Kills Superbugs, says Study

February 24, 2021

Investigators wanted to see how their method would fare against Acinetobacter baumannii and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and results were promising.

Endoscope Cleaning: What Infection Preventionists Should Know

January 07, 2021

Linda Spaulding RN, BC, CIC, CHEC, CHOP: “Infection preventionists need to learn how to clean an endoscope, or at least observe the cleaning…. Infection preventionists need to make rounds, they need to talk to the person processing.”