Making Infection Prevention “Simple”

Susan Huang, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the REDUCE MRSA study and Associate Professor at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine and Medical Director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention at UC Irvine Health For years, we have searc…

What People Are Saying About the REDUCE MRSA Trial

The REDUCE MRSA trial was published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine and took place in two stages from 2009-2011. A multidisciplinary team from the University of California, Irvine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Hospital Corporatio…

Preserving Antibiotic Effectiveness: Everybody’s Responsibility

Guest Author – Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD Director, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy To many, antibiotic resistance may seem like an evergreen issue that reappears in the news cycle periodically. However, recent reports of the emergence and spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, described in CDC’s March 2013 Vital Signs Report remind us that we stand […]

Understanding and combating CRE bacteria in Chicago

Guest Authors – Michael Y. Lin, MD MPH Mary K. Hayden, MD For the Chicago Prevention Epicenters Program Increasingly, certain kinds of bacteria are causing serious infections that are difficult or impossible to cure because the bacteria are resistant…

The Beginning of the End of Antibiotics?

Author – Arjun Srinivasan, MD CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion Today in CDC’s March Vital Signs, we report on what could be the beginning of the end of antibiotics. Our arsenal of existing antibiotics is being overpowered by lethal …

When Antibiotics Lead to Deadly Diarrhea…

Author – Matthew Wayne MD, CMD, Chief Medical Officer for CommuniCare Family of Companies, President of the American Medical Directors Association (AMDA) So, you’ve recently taken antibiotics and you’ve now developed a case of disturbing diarrhea…

Cost of Antibiotic Misuse Too Great to Ignore

Author – Sara Cosgrove, MD, MS, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Medical and scientific advances change the way we look at the world. Before penicillin was introduced in 1942, any infection could be a death sentence. Since then, we have been…

Outbreak Investigation: Meningitis

One Case Sparks National Action Imagine… A patient goes to the doctor for a routine steroid injection.   A couple weeks later, the patient feels sick – headache, fever and suddenly uncomfortable in bright light.  Within days, the patient is admi…