This week's coverage in Infection Control Today centered on a common thread: the systems, partnerships, and data that let infection prevention teams catch problems before patients are harmed.
|Articles|June 10, 2022
Weekly Rounds: How Much Threat Is Monkeypox Really, Biosafety Measures, and more
Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending June 10.
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Here are 5 highlights from ICT®’s wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders, to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.
Monkeypox: CDC Raises Travel Alert, But How Much Threat Is it Really?
With more confirmed cases in the United States, and the CDC raising the travel alert to Level 2, should individuals be concerned? ICT investigates.
Testing Should Be Appropriate Not Excessive
Biosafety risks for patients with SARS-CoV-2 may be overlooked, and some control measures may bring about cross-contamination of the tests being done and cause biosafety accidents.
Pilot Survey on Environmental Hygiene Contains Startling Results
Over 50 health care facilities from 35 countries participated from both higher and lower income settings.
RSV Requires Global Prevention Strategy Across all Income Levels
Respiratory syncytial virus does have a vaccine; however, the cost limits the distribution to the highest income countries, and a more cost-effective preventative strategy is needed.
Did Stethoscope Hygiene Improve Before and After COVID-19?
Despite the emphasis on more improved infection prevention practices, stethoscope hygiene continually falls short, possibly leading to more health care-acquired infections.
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What might infection prevention rounds miss when visible conditions dominate the conversation? Tommy Davis, PhD, CMIP, a member of ICT's executive advisory board, makes the case for structured observations of clinical workflows, shared accountability, and greater attention to environmental services staff’s insights.
Artist and designer Matthew Caliman shares how personal loss inspired the Cleanup Crew, a handwashing education project using cartoon faucets, songs, and games to help families revisit an essential health message.
How do you celebrate an infection that never happened?
That's one of the unusual challenges infection preventionists share with teachers.
Both can spend their careers changing outcomes they may never see. Both educate people who don't always want to listen. Both are second-guessed. Both face burnout. And both must somehow keep remembering why they started.
Knowing the protocol is only the beginning. In The Clean Bite, Sherrie Busby explores how explaining the why, addressing staff concerns, and creating clear procedures can help dental teams make infection control part of everyday practice.
A followed procedure can still leave patients at risk if it no longer matches validated requirements. Annetta L. McKnight, MHA, BSN, CRCST, CER, examines how infection prevention and sterile processing can identify process drift, assess disruptions, and strengthen shared oversight of medical device reprocessing.
Turnover pressure can leave critical OR cleaning steps unfinished. Karen deKay, MSN, RN, EBP-C, CNOR, CIC, FAPIC, examines common gaps in environmental hygiene and how shared responsibilities, attention to disinfectant contact time, and ongoing education can help teams strengthen practices between cases.
This week on Infection Control Today, the stories ranged from emerging drug-resistant pathogens circling the globe to a landmark decade of surface science—all against a backdrop of ongoing outbreaks and a hard look at what the profession owes its own workforce.
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