Infection Control News

WHO said Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic no longer constitutes a global public health emergency of international concern, citing reduced risks to human health driven by high population-level immunity and vaccination.

Antibiotics administered before and during surgery should be stopped immediately after the patient’s incision is closed, according to updated recommendations for preventing surgical site infections.

The FDA on Wednesday approved the world’s first vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, which followed years of failed attempts by scientists to develop one.

SAN DIEGO — Internists should prioritize the assessment, documentation and treatment of wounds, according to a speaker.

The White House announced that it will end COVID-19 vaccine requirements for federal employees and international air travelers on May 11, the same day the public health and national emergencies for the pandemic are scheduled to end.

A hospital that replaced sink drains and traps in an ICU, hoping to curtail an outbreak of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase-producing bacteria, instead saw patients infected in a new outbreak of Serratia marcescens, according to a study.

Nearly half of health care workers who tested positive for COVID-19 continued working at least part of 1 day with symptoms, according to a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

SAN DIEGO — Some of the biggest developments in infectious diseases in the past 12 months involve a promising treatment for COVID-19, a universal influenza mRNA vaccine candidate and the emergence of vaccine-derived polio, a speaker said.

WASHINGTON — Vaccine adherence was increasing among children in the United States in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, but rates differed by socioeconomic status, researchers reported at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting.

SAN DIEGO — A speaker encouraged physicians who prescribe antibiotics to take the necessary steps to curb drug resistance and reduce disparities in care.