Category: Infection Control

Fewer than 1 in 6 healthcare staff received a COVID-19 booster during the 2023 to 2024 respiratory virus season, CDC data shows. 

The CDC expects the peak number of hospitalizations for flu, COVID-19 and RSV this winter to be similar to or lower than that of last season, though higher than this summer’s peak.

A seven-day antibiotic course for patients with bloodstream infections was as effective as a 14-day course, and it had a lower mortality rate, a recent study found.

Boston Children’s Hospital researchers sought to identify the optimal staffing model for pediatric infection prevention amid current shortfalls in infection preventionist staffing ratios.

University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia researchers have developed the first mRNA Clostridioides difficile vaccine — and it’s shown promising results in animal models.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt Health is notifying an unspecified number of patients who may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B and C during endoscopy procedures at a clinic on the health system’s main campus, FOX affiliate WZTV reported Oct. 11….

Hospitals with lower staffing levels in infection prevention and control teams have higher rates of healthcare-associated infections, according to an Oct. 10 study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

At four hospitals, 46 patients experienced Burkholderia multivorans infections from contaminations within ice machines, the CDC said in its Oct. 3 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 

The winter COVID-19 wave may be smaller this year; the flu virus has mutated and vaccines are expected to not be as effective; and experts are keeping a close eye on possible human-to-human transmission in avian flu, Johns Hopkins public health experts…

St. Louis-based Washington University School of Medicine researchers found that fidaxomicin, a treatment for Clostridioides difficile infection, has increased in use but “remains underutilized.”