Articles Tagged With: infection
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HCV: The Cure Is Here, but Thousands Still Dying
About 2 million people in the United States are living with an infectious disease that has been curable for a decade but remains the leading cause of liver cancer and kills about 15,000 people annually: hepatitis C.
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High-Mortality Enterovirus E-11 Infections in Europe
Infection preventionists should be aware echovirus 11 continues to cause infections in newborns in Europe after high-mortality cases first were reported in France.
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New MRSA Compendium Revisits Contact Precautions
The bane of infection preventionists for more than half a century, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) shows few signs of ebbing. MRSA bloodstream infections surged during the first year of the pandemic, raising the question of whether this was because of disruptions and lapses in contact precautions.
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Mothers, Babies, and HPV: Thanks for Not Sharing!
Nearly half of pregnant women in a Canadian study had vaginal swabs positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Only about one-fourth of placentas and newborns produced by those HPV-positive women carried detectable HPV DNA, and all HPV-positive babies had cleared their positivity by 6 months of age.
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Preconception Hepatitis B and Congenital Heart Disease
A new study suggests that both women and men who have had hepatitis B infection prior to conceiving offspring are more likely to give birth to children with congenital heart disease.
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Maternal, Fetal, and Infant Implications of a Positive Syphilis Screening During Pregnancy
Although syphilis screening during pregnancy is effective in identifying maternal syphilis, it is not without consequences. False-positive syphilis testing can result in unwarranted antibiotic therapy; re-screening based on risk is not always consistent, and among pregnant women who truly test positive to syphilis, treatment is not always optimized to prevent congenital syphilis.
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Drug-Resistant Candida auris Now in Half of U.S. States
The seemingly inexorable rise and spread of drug-resistant Candida auris continues in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that clinical infections increased 59% in 2020, then nearly doubled in 2021 with a 95% jump.
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Fungi: Pop Culture Darling a Future Pandemic Threat
Raising public awareness, fungi are having something of a pop culture moment in podcasts, videos, and a popular post-apocalyptic television series.
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CLABSI Collaboration Cuts Infection Rates 70%
Infection preventionists and colleagues from quality and education spearheaded a hospital-wide team and engaged all staff to dramatically reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections by 70%.
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U.S. Mpox Outbreak Down to Two Cases Daily
Mpox (monkeypox) virus, which startled epidemiologists when it appeared suddenly in many non-endemic countries in May 2022, has subsided dramatically in the United States. The infection also is decreasing rapidly in affected regions of the globe.