Prevention

Just when should a health care professional return to work after a high-risk COVID-19 exposure? In a Q&A, Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC, FAPIC, explains the CDC’s changing recommendations.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending January 7.

As the government rolls out 500 million rapid at-home antigen tests, results of a small study suggest that those tests will produce false-negatives that will enhance Omicron’s spread.

Data collected from over 46,000 pregnant women show that COVID-19 vaccination does not cause an increased risk of preterm birth or small-for-gestational-age at birth.

Unclear labeling and disorganized storage can lead to the wrong dose of a COVID-19 vaccine being administered to a child.

Don’t look now, but influenza is making a comeback. What if it joins forces with COVID-19 variants?

Omicron is going hard after the pediatric population, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated and whose vital organs, which COVID-19 attacks, are still in development.

Infectivity causes more harm and deaths than lethality and in the case of Omicron more than makes up for its somewhat milder infections in immunologically naive individuals.

SARS-CoV-2 causes a system infection and is commonly detected in the heart and brain, exemplified by the loss of smell from brain tissue destruction and loss of cardiac function from myocarditis.

Keeping youngsters in school has become a major goal of public health and education authorities. But the current COVID-19 surge might make that harder to do.

Now is the time for infection preventionists to harness the current attention to biopreparedness and use the momentum to build the foundations for strong local programs that can be sustained through future waves of competing priorities.

If CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, endorses the FDA’s decision, the recommendation can go into effect this week.

Anthony Harris, MD, MBA, MPH: “There are nights where I go to bed thinking, ‘Will tomorrow be the day that I read about a tremendous increase in severity in Omicron, and antibody dependent enhancement could be the cause of it?’”

CDC investigators looked at what might cause reinfections during the first wave of the pandemic.

Those dental practices that come out of the COVID-19 pandemic with an appreciation of and renewed commitment to infection control best practices will maintain the trust of their patients and survive, whereas those that scoff at the costs of doing the right thing will not.

Earloop toggles or a mask brace made for a better seal and enhanced the fit of medical masks. The mask brace “significantly improved” how cloth masks fit.

One of the benefits of contact tracing is that it’s the least intrusive of the nonpharmaceutical interventions, a study says.

Many health care workers are just tired and fed up. But we have taken oaths to protect and do no harm hence we will continue to try to keep people alive who threaten and laugh at us.

There are many facets to creating smarter, healthier health care spaces through infection control and prevention, but these tips can help generate a cohesive, adaptable and curative plan.

Heather Saunders, MPH, RN, CIC: “We really need to make sure that we’re taking care of our teams. Infection preventionists are burned out. This has been a long 22 months. There are likely some rough months ahead of us.”

With an eye on Omicron and the staffing shortages, the agency shortened isolation time for those who test positive for COVID-19. Infection preventionists will need to be extra vigilant.

Omicron can significantly avoid immunity created by both prior infections and vaccines, and younger people and people of “African ethnicity” have higher rates of infection with Omicron than with Delta, says a new study.

In the space of 2 days, the FDA approved at-home oral treatments for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, drug that were months in development. Today, it was Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ turn.

The US health care system, already straining to contain a Delta spike, must now deal with Omicron. One expert predicts that Omicron will infect 20% to 30% of health care workers.

The pill, Paxlovid, showed an 88% decrease in hospitalization and death for those taking it 5 days after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

At a White House press briefing, President Biden outlined steps that include sending in reinforcements of doctors and nurses to areas hard hit by COVID-19.

Even though Omicron may not have as high of a fatality rate, its infectivity being 3 times higher than the Delta variant creates a grave risk to nations. Overstressed health care systems may collapse.

There is no one left to cover sick calls and vacations now. There are no vacations for nurses and doctors. There are no Christmas celebrations or New Year celebrations for these workers.

Just how much celebrating the pandemic-weary public can do turns on the vaccinated or unvaccinated question.

Omicron poses a grave risk to the US health care system. The US has a low rate of vaccination and obtaining boosters, and a relatively large segment of our population is elderly or immunocompromised. A 2-dose mRNA vaccine's immunity appears to rapidly wane and unlike South Africa, many in the US were fully vaccinated very early in the pandemic.