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 infection prevention staff, but on all who interact within the hospital, from environmental services teams to those planning and building new construction.
November 13th 2024
Non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) is a prevalent, preventable infection. Improved oral care protocols and provider education are essential to reducing NV-HAP rates and improving patient outcomes.
What Infection Preventionists Can Expect in 2021
December 31st 20202021 will likely mean a mixture of things for infection preventionists (IPs). First, a focused effort on vaccine education. While this is a larger effort, IPs have always played a significant role in education and answering questions while rounding on the units and clinics.
Better Protection from COVID Needed for Providers
December 30th 2020Kristy Warren: “We need to do everything we can to help protect our providers when performing these aerosol generating procedures. And subsequently those providers that enter the room or exit the room after these procedures have occurred.”
Q&A: Hospital Ventilation Designed to Thwart COVID
December 29th 2020Paula J. Olsiewski, PhD: “Healthcare workers at hospitals are always concerned about the air because historically, we know many disease agents are transmitted through the air, whether it’s measles or tuberculosis. Those appear on the scene long before COVID-19.”
Q&A: ‘It’s Far Worse Than COVID’
December 28th 2020Ravi Starzl, PhD: “If you’re constantly focused on trying to escalate the war of destruction, I think that the bacteria will always win that war. They just have too many countermeasures available to them and our rate of developing new antibiotics is far slower than their rate of developing countermeasures.”
Year Zero: How COVID-19 Changed Everything
December 23rd 2020Though tough months lie ahead for infection preventionists and other healthcare professionals, hope remains that at some point in 2021 things will begin to settle down. In the end, it comes down to a simple formula: We win, COVID-19 loses.
As Vaccines Roll Out, New COVID Strain Rolls In
December 21st 2020Healthcare experts around the world worry that the COVID-19 mutation—called VUI–202012/01—might be 70% more infectious than the standard SARS-CoV-2 strain. There are no indications yet that it may also be more lethal or that vaccines can’t neutralize it.
Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Approved by FDA
December 21st 2020Unlike traditional forms, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine does not put weakened or inactivated germs inside the body. Rather, it teaches cells to make proteins that will trigger an immune response by injecting ribonucleic acid into cells which gives them instructions.
Q&A: ‘Are You Going to Get the Vaccine?’
December 17th 2020Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA: “We have to remember that infection control and prevention is not just dealing with the pathogen itself but dealing with the consequences and the downstream effects of what happens when you are dealing with the pathogen.”
Truckloads of COVID-19 Vaccine Rolling to US Distribution Sites
December 14th 2020Angela Rasmussen, PhD: “Even if you are in the first group to get the vaccine, even if the vaccine becomes available widely beyond the first groups that are going to get it, we still need to be wearing masks, social distancing, thinking about ventilation, and avoiding large gatherings for some time to come.”
How to Train Environmental Services Teams
December 11th 2020Infection preventionists can work with environmental services (EVS) leadership to implement a routine practice for quality assurance checks that EVS leadership can follow. These metrics can then be reviewed as an aggregate with the IP department to target whether further education may be beneficial.
Bracing for ‘Logistical Nightmare’ of COVID Vaccine Distribution
December 9th 2020Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC: “If it were my institution, I would make sure that infection preventionists are educated on everything they need to know about the COVID vaccine, as well as the flu vaccine side effects.”