Author: Alice Guh, CDC medical officer and co-lead of Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients initiative As clinicians, we know that the nearly one million patients who receive outpatient cancer treatment each year are at risk for serious infections t…
Author: Russell N. Olmsted, MPH, CIC 2011 President, APIC Director, Infection Prevention & Control Services, St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW), which occurs October 16–22, 2011, represents the 25th anniversary of the commemoration of the importance of infection prevention around the globe. It does not seem possible that […]
Author: John S Bradley, MD Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist at Rady Children’s Hospital and Health Center Every year, pneumonia kills more than 2 million children ages 5 years and younger worldwide. Yet the only existing national guidelines fo…
Author: Matthew J. Kuehnert, MD, Director, Office of Blood, Organ, and Other Tissue Safety Over the past few years, my team at the CDC looked into more than 200 reports of unexpected disease transmission through organ transplantation. Of the cases that…
Author – Linda Brixey, RN President of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) I am excited the CDC is continuing to develop additional tools and resources for infection control. As the president of the American Academy of Ambulatory …
Author – Bret T. Petersen, MD, FASGE, Chairman, Quality Assurance in Endoscopy Committee, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Reports of infections subsequent to gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy intermittently gain national media coverage….
Author: Melissa Schaefer, MD Medical Officer in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion As healthcare professionals, we must recognize our responsibility to protect patients – care should not provide any avenue for the transmission of infect…
With so much attention focused on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) – and particularly pressure at local, state, and national levels to drive infection rates down – how can we be sure HAIs are tracked accurately? CDC’s Dr. Arjun Srinivasan …
Author: Taranisia MacCannell, PhD, MSc Epidemiologist in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion Norovirus is a common cause of gastroenteritis, inflammation of the stomach and small and large intestines, that can include symptoms such as diar…
Author – Victoria Nahum Co-Founder and Director Safe Care Campaign (Atlanta, Georgia) My name is Victoria Nahum. Almost 5 years ago, my husband Armando and I learned the hardest lesson of our lives. We learned that losing our 27 year old son Joshua t…
Author – Dixie Roberts, APRN, C, MPH Healthcare Associated Infections Coordinator South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control “He who doesn’t prevent grime when he can, encourages it” In 2007, with the knowledge that hand hygi…
Author – Kate Ellingson, Ph.D. CDC Epidemiologist CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotiona Hand hygiene is a simple practice that has been at the core of infection prevention for over 150 years. Yet getting healthcare personnel to follow rec…
Author – Gina Pugliese, RN MS Vice President of the Safety Institute, Premier healthcare alliance It was 20 years ago when I first heard about syringes being reused on multiple patients, followed by a flurry of guidelines cautioning about the need to…
Author: John Jernigan, M.D Director for CDC’s Office of HAI Prevention Research and Evaluation, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion The optimal approach to controlling MRSA in healthcare facilities has been a topic of ongoing controversy. Of par…
Author – Jean B. Patel, PhD, D(ABMM) Deputy Director for CDC’s Office of Antimicrobial Resistance CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion Each year, millions of Americans take antimicrobial drugs, including antibiotics. People have come to…