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A disturbing number of cases of pneumonia caused by staph infections resulted in death among young, otherwise healthy patients during the 2006-2007 flu season, with more than three-quarters caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), researchers found.
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For the first time, a newly proposed guidance puts a number and a cost to the respirators needed to protect health care workers during an influenza pandemic: 480 respirators at a cost of about $240 to protect a single employee, or a single reusable elastomeric respirator with three filters at a cost of $40 per employee.
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An aging population and the emergence of a hypervirulent strain are combining to make Clostridium difficile disease a killer. Hospitalizations and deaths from C. diff-associated disease (CDAD) are on the rise in the United States.
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In the silence after the speakers had concluded the opening session recently in Orlando of the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) as those with questions were moving to the microphones moderator Patrick J. Brennan, MD, acknowledged what many were thinking by noting that there was an "800-pound gorilla in the room."
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A fascinating, philosophical exchange among some of the nation's leading health care epidemiologists recently came down to the value of zero.
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Hospital infection prevention efforts aimed at methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) appear to having some effect in preventing nosocomial transmission.
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State hospital associations throughout the nation should be in receipt of a May 6, 2008, letter from U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking what they are doing to prevent health care-associated infections (HAIs).
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As the field of infection prevention undergoes sweeping changes, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) must reassess its role and redefine its mission, an epidemiologist said recently in Orlando at the group's annual meeting.
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The Joint Commission has reiterated its standards require a clean hospital environment in light of comments and criticism at the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's April 16th hearing on "Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs): A Preventable Epidemic."
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The Joint Commission continues to emphasize the patient safety issue of medication administration, warning that children are at particular risk of harmful medication errors.