Prevention

The Infection Control Today® prevention page contains news and information on the latest updates on all facets of infection prevention. From vaccinations and immunizations to controlling air and water flow in a health care system, preventing infections falls not only on the IP staff, but on all who interact within the hospital, from environmental services teams to those planning and building new construction.

Enter Omicrom: New COVID-19 Variant Spreads Alarm

November 26, 2021

Although not much has been disclosed about Omicrom so far, its appearance made the WHO label it a variant of concern and caused a cascade of travel restrictions around the world.

Who Gets the Lung? Vaccinated or Unvaccinated?

November 26, 2021

Kevin Kavanagh, MD: “One person with COVID-19 can spend months in the ICU, which would prevent 10 or 20, non-COVID-19 cases from going to the ICU, whether it’s for a coronary bypass, or just angioplasty, or getting a cancer procedure. You have 10 or 20 times the number of patients that can’t get care for other serious illnesses.”

Immune Changes in Mothers, Infants Linked to COVID-19 Infection

November 25, 2021

Perhaps another reason why pregnant women should get the COVID-19 vaccine? Investigators found COVID-19 infection altered the mothers’ immunity at delivery, and gestational COVID-19 exposure alters the immunity of the newborns.

Traceability: Challenges IPs Face Keeping an Instrument Decontaminated

November 24, 2021

La’Titia Houston MPH, BSN, RN, CIC: “We work not only with the bedside nurses and the sterile processors, but even with our clinicians, our physicians. They want a timeout before the procedure is even performed because they want to ensure that the scope did pass during the high-level disinfection procedure.”

COVID-19 Spread: Droplets or Particles? It’s Not an Either/Or

November 24, 2021

Recent research into COVID-19 suggests that health care systems need to move beyond the idea that pathogen spread happens either via droplets or aerosolized particles. Patients can generate the full range of respiratory particles.

COVID-19 Booster Shots Urged for Anyone 50 or Above

November 23, 2021

Confusion surrounding just who should get COVID-19 booster shots addressed in latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Animal Kingdom: COVID-19 Has So Many Hosts to Choose From

November 22, 2021

Kevin Kavanagh, MD: “The deer apparently live with COVID-19 quite well, but, yet rapidly spread it amongst the herds. And that’s actually very problematic, because if it finds a host that it doesn’t make sick, but yet it can mutate and change and then reinfect other animals and plus mankind, that is one of the worrisome scenarios that could take place.”