Infection Control News

ORLANDO — An initiative that focused on surgical patients’ paths from pre-op meetings to hospital discharge reduced neurosurgical infections by more than 80% over 2 years at a Pittsburgh hospital, researchers reported.

A shorter course of antibiotics may be enough to treat some pediatric UTIs, a study found, although experts encouraged physicians to speak to parents about a potentially increased risk for treatment failure from a shorter course.

CDC advisors recommended that older adults talk to their doctors about getting vaccinated against respiratory syncytial virus using one of two recently approved shots.

Although rare in travelers, nearly all complicated cases of dengue showed warning signs, highlighting the importance of monitoring patients with dengue to prevent severe disease, according to researchers.

ORLANDO — Staff at a children’s hospital in Virginia collaborated to go almost a year without a central line-associated bloodstream infection, researchers reported.

ORLANDO — A children’s hospital used decolonization protocols to drive down rates of MRSA in three intensive care units by more than 40%, according to data reported at a medical conference.

CDC advisors on Thursday unanimously supported the addition of Pfizer’s 20-valent pneumococcal vaccine as an option for children in the United States.

HOUSTON — A surface hygiene surveillance program could help investigators identify the source of hospital outbreaks or possibly even prevent them in the first place, according to a study.

FDA advisors recommend that future COVID-19 vaccines be monovalent, targeting XBB sublineages of the omicron variant, after data showed that bivalent vaccines are less effective against currently circulating variants.

Hospitalizations that involved fungal infections increased by more than 8% in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with previous years, researchers found.