Infection Control News

SAN ANTONIO — Natural language processing and other branches of AI are already being investigated for use in drug selection and diagnosis, and now researchers have found that AI may also help in infection prevention and surveillance.

Although nearly all health care facilities have antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, researchers are suggesting that pathogen reduction is a promising way to lessen the threat of transmission and risk of resistance.

SAN ANTONIO — We caught up with Connie Steed, MSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC, at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology annual meeting to talk about the potential benefits of universal nasal decolonization.

Findings from a literature review published in Pediatrics provided more evidence that antimicrobial stewardship reduces antimicrobial use in NICUs without an increase in adverse events.

SAN ANTONIO — Clinicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center learned some valuable insight about environmental containment after they identified two patients with Candida auris.

The CDC has published guidance recommending that providers counsel certain patients on the harms and benefits of doxycycline for post-exposure prophylaxis — or doxy-PEP — for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

Cases of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, or CRE, were not as common in U.S. children as cases of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales, or ESBL-E, according to a study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

A third human case in the avian influenza outbreak has been confirmed in another Michigan dairy worker, although risk to the general public remains low, according to the CDC.

SAN ANTONIO — A hospital in Seattle started a measles entry screening program for all visitors after an outbreak in the city, finding the measures were easy to put in place and deemed acceptable by patients, according to a study.

Researchers found that a questionnaire successfully identified patients with STIs who can be safely evaluated for penicillin allergy by skin test or by a two-step graded oral challenge, according to a study.