Hospital Associated Infection

As of Feb. 1, there have been at least 24 million illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 13,000 deaths across the United States related to influenza during the 2024-2025 season, according to the CDC.

A stand-alone sequencing approach was accurate, cost effective and efficient for analyzing resistant pathogens and determining their health care-associated transmission, researchers found.

SAN ANTONIO — At this year’s Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology annual conference, the program’s keynote talks focused on developing both skills and confidence, and consciously leading infection prevention efforts.

Replacing contaminated sinks did not end an outbreak of multidrug-resistant bacteria in a Japanese pediatric ward but other infection prevention measures did, such as forbidding mouth-washing using sink water, researchers reported.

Hospital-associated infections declined significantly at acute-care hospitals in 2022, although rates at other health care facilities remained relatively stagnant, according to a CDC report.

SEATTLE — A hospital used real-time whole-genome sequencing to detect genetically related clusters of infection, identify potential sources and stopped further transmission, researchers reported.

SEATTLE — Veterans commonly acquire multidrug-resistant organisms during stays in Veterans Health Administration community living centers, researchers found.

Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast causing nosocomial infections. First identified in 2009 in Japan, C. auris has now also been isolated in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and East Asia.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about numerous challenges and a strain on processes in health care systems, including in the prevention of hospital-acquired infections, or HAIs.

In the early months of the pandemic, a Boston hospital with an infection prevention program that included dedicated COVID-19 units with airborne infection isolation rooms recorded just two cases of nosocomial COVID-19, a study found.