‘Tis the season for norovirus sharing

Authors Tara MacCannell, PhD [1], Ben Lopman, PhD [2] [1] Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [2] Division of Viral Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Winter is prime time for norovirus…

Risky pen pals

Author – Michael R. Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD, FASHP President, Institute for Safe Medication Practices There’s an alarming and widespread misunderstanding about insulin pens by some healthcare workers who work in hospitals: that sterility can be maintai…

Parents Everywhere – Keep Medicines Up and Away

Author – Emily Skor Vice President, Communications and Alliance Development, Consumer Healthcare Products Association Nothing is more important for a parent than their children’s safety and well-being. As a mother of two young children, I know that w…

Three Words for Poison Prevention: Click, Up, and Away

CLICK! That’s the sound you often hear when you close the child-resistant cap on a medicine bottle. Imagine this scenario: It’s the middle of the night and your sick child needs a dose of fever reducing medicine. You’re only half awake and caring…

Call Your Poison Center When the Unthinkable Happens

Author: Robert J. Geller, M.D. Georgia Poison Center; American Association of Poison Control Centers It’s a moment of sheer panic. You find your child chewing something and holding an open bottle of medicine. You don’t know how much, if any, medici…

Keeping Medicines Up and Away and Out of Sight of Toddlers

Author – Dr. Dan Budnitz Today, CDC announced the launch of an exciting new education program for protecting children from unintentional medication overdoses – Up and Away and Out of Sight.  We’ve blogged about the large number of children who e…

Antibiotic use in the United States: where do we stand?

Author – Ramanan Laxminarayan, Ph.D., director of Extending the Cure (ETC) Patients in the United States are among the most intensive users of antibiotics in the world, but you may be surprised to learn that overall per capita outpatient antibiotic p…

Using Antibiotics Wisely in Long Term Care Settings

AMDA – Dedicated to Long Term Care Many of us have or will have loved ones in long term care facilities. These healthcare settings are critical to providing healthcare and everyday assistance to people with chronic illnesses or disabilities, who othe…

Time to rethink antibiotic use in long-term care facilities

Author — Nimalie Stone, M.D. Medical Epidemiologist CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion With increasing drug-resistant bacteria and complicating conditions from antibiotic use like diarrhea from C. difficile on the rise, we must look at …

Government Takes Action to Combat Antibiotic Resistance

Author – Steve Solomon, MD Director of the Office of Antimicrobial Resistance, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Office of Infectious Diseases, CDC. Antimicrobial resistance is a …