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Certain Seniors at Risk for Infection After ER Visit: Study

Posted 23 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Jan. 23 – Seniors in long-term care facilities have a roughly threefold increased risk for respiratory or gastrointestinal infections if they visit a hospital emergency department in the fall, winter or spring, according to a new study. Canadian researchers looked at 1,269 elderly residents of 22 long-term care facilities in Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal and Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec between September 2006 and May 2008. The investigators noted that they focused on non-summer months because that's when higher rates of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections occur. During the study period, 424 of the seniors visited an emergency department for a variety of conditions other than acute respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms, and 845 did not go to an emergency department. The seniors who went to an emergency department had a higher rate of chronic illnesses and tended to be ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections, Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, Gastroenteritis

Drug-Resistant Infections in Hospitals May Be Less Deadly Than Thought

Posted 25 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Oct. 25 – Antibiotic-resistant infections acquired in hospital intensive care units may be killing fewer patients than feared, new research suggests. Infections occur in 1.7 million hospitalized patients every year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Over the past decade, the rate of resistant infections that don't respond to most antibiotics has risen in ICUs. In the study, researchers examined infections in surgical or trauma ICU patients from 2000 to 2010. They identified 799 drug-resistant pathogens and nearly 1,500 infections acquired in the ICU. While rates of drug-resistant infections rose during that period, death rates from any cause fell by 4 percent. "The bottom line is that we think that these patients who have infection are not dying from that infection after all; however, they die with that infection because, for example, they are of ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Infection

Dangerous Bacteria Hide Out in Nurses', Doctors' Uniforms

Posted 31 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 31 – The white coats and medical scrubs worn by hospital staff may harbor hazardous bacteria, a new study finds. Researchers in Israel swabbed nurses' and physicians' uniforms and found potentially dangerous bacteria on more than 60 percent of the clothing items. The team, from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, analyzed swab samples collected from three parts – sleeve ends, pockets and abdominal area – of the uniforms of 75 registered nurses and 60 doctors. Potentially dangerous bacteria were found on 60 percent of the doctors' uniforms and 65 percent of the nurses' uniforms. Especially dangerous drug-resistant bacteria were found in 21 of the samples from nurses' uniforms and six samples from doctors' uniforms. Eight of the samples had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is becoming tough to fight using conventional antibiotics. The ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections

Bacterial Strain Behind 'Black Death' Plague Is Likely Extinct: Study

Posted 30 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Aug. 30 – Using bones retrieved from London's medieval graveyards, scientists have isolated the strain of bacteria thought to be responsible for the Black Death, and determined that it is most likely now extinct. The plague, caused by a strain of flea-borne bacteria called Yersinia pestis, ravaged Europe close to seven centuries ago. But the variant of the bacterium behind that scourge is different from the modern strain that still causes about 2,000 new cases of bubonic and pneumonic plague each year, researchers said. The new research also confirms Y. pestis as the culprit behind the medieval outbreak, the study authors said. "The controversy as to what caused the Black Death is now resolved," said study co-author Hendrik Poinar, associate professor in the department of anthropology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. "It clearly was the bacterium Yersinia ... Read more

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Kids Taught to Wash Hands in School Avoid Sick Days: Study

Posted 9 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Aug. 9 – Good knowledge of hand hygiene among students reduces school absenteeism, researchers report. The study included 324 elementary school students, aged 5 to 14, in Denmark. The children were given a lesson in hand disinfection theory and practice and told to disinfect their hands using ethanol gel three times each school day. During the three-month study, there was a 66 percent decrease in students who were absent for four or more days and a 20 percent increase in children with zero absences, compared to the previous school year, the investigators found. "Regular training in [hand washing] and [hand disinfection] would be a simple, low-cost action with very significant impact on reducing infectious illness absence periods among pupils," stated study author and infection preventionist Inge Nandrup-Bus, in a news release from the Association for Professionals in Infection ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections

Predatory Bacteria May Help Control Antibiotic-Resistant Germs

Posted 14 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Jan. 14 – Bacteria that prey on other bacteria may prove useful in controlling antibiotic-resistant germs, say U.S. researchers. They tested two types of predatory bacteria – Micavibrio aeruginosavorus and Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus – on dozens of other bacteria. "They actually have to consume other bacteria in order to complete their life cycles. They have a great ability to seek out other bacteria, invade them, grow in or on them, and kill them," lead author Daniel Kadouri, an assistant professor of oral biology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Dental School, said in a university news release. He and his colleagues found that M. aeruginosavorus reduced populations of 57 of 89 bacteria and B. bacteriovorus reduced populations of 68 of 83 bacteria. The bacteria effectively attacked by the predatory bacteria included lung infection-causing ... Read more

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Most Guidelines for Infectious Diseases Don't Come From Clinical Trial Findings

Posted 11 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Jan. 11 – Most recommendations on how to treat common infectious diseases are grounded in expert opinions or case reports, and not evidence from clinical trials, new research indicates. That's not necessarily a bad thing, according to a study appearing in the Jan. 10 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, but it may be a wake-up call for more attention to be paid to hard research on infectious disease. "We were surprised to see that even though they represent a large body of data and a huge amount of work done by many others, that more than half of those individual recommendations are based on the lowest quality of evidence, which is either an expert opinion or a case report or case series," said study co-author Dr. Ole Vielemeyer, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases and HIV medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine in ... Read more

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Private Rooms Cut Infection Risk in the ICU: Study

Posted 11 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Jan. 11 – Intensive care unit (ICU) patients in single, private rooms have lower infection rates than patients in shared rooms, a new study finds. About 30 percent of patients in ICUs acquire health care-associated infections, which can lead to serious illness and death, the study authors noted in background information in their report. "In ICU patients, these infections are associated with an increased length of stay of eight to nine days, and the resulting additional cost from excess stay alone is estimated to be $3.5 billion per year in the United States," Dana Y. Teltsch, and colleagues at McGill University in Montreal, wrote in the study published in the Jan. 10 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. For this study, the researchers looked at infection rates among patients at a hospital before and after it changed the ICU from multibed rooms to private rooms ... Read more

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Flu Viruses Gaining Resistance, Study Confirms

Posted 7 Dec 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Dec. 7 – Certain influenza virus strains are developing increasing drug resistance and greater ability to spread, a new study warns. American and Canadian researchers confirmed that resistance to the two approved classes of antiviral drugs can occur in several ways and said this dual resistance has been on the rise over the past three years. The team analyzed 28 seasonal H1N1 influenza viruses that were present in five countries from 2008 to 2010 and were resistant to both M2 blockers (adamantanes) and neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs), including oseltamivir and zanamivir. The researchers found that additional antiviral resistance can rapidly develop in a previously single-resistant influenza virus through mutation, drug response, or gene exchange with another virus. The study also found that the proportion of tested viruses with dual resistance increased from 00.6 percent in ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections

Hospital-Acquired Infections a Serious Threat to ICU Patients: Study

Posted 1 Dec 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 30 – Intensive-care unit patients with hospital-acquired infections have a significantly increased risk of dying, but antibiotic resistance increases their likelihood of death only a small amount, a new study finds. Looking at data from 2005 to 2008, researchers analyzed hospital-acquired bloodstream infections and pneumonia among nearly 120,000 patients in 537 ICUs in 10 European countries. The infections were caused by the four most common microorganisms in ICUs: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Because of their poor health, ICU patients are highly susceptible to infection. Bloodstream infections nearly tripled the risk of death, while pneumonia doubled the risk. The study also found that having pneumonia increased patients' length of stay in ICUs. The presence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms increased ... Read more

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Smarten Up About Antibiotics, CDC Urges

Posted 18 Nov 2010 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Nov. 18 – Knowing when to take antibiotics – and when not to – can help fight the rise of deadly "superbugs," say experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary or inappropriate, the agency says, and overuse has helped create bacteria that don't respond, or respond less effectively, to the drugs used to fight them. "Antibiotics are a shared resource that has become a scarce resource," said Dr. Lauri Hicks, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. She's also medical director a of new program, Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, that had its launch this week. "Everyone has a role to play in preventing the spread of antibiotic resistance," Hicks said. The stakes are high, said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, CDC's associate director for health care-associated infection prevention programs. Almost every type of bacteria ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections, Amoxicillin, Doxycycline, Bactrim, Penicillin, Cephalexin, Clindamycin, Azithromycin, Cipro, Metronidazole, Zithromax, Levaquin, Augmentin, Flagyl, Ciprofloxacin

Uniform Methods Urged for Grading Hospital Report Cards

Posted 10 Nov 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 9 – Differences in hospital surveillance methods affect the quality of public reporting of bloodstream infections on hospital report cards, researchers have found. "Public reporting of hospital-specific infection rates is widely promoted as a means to improve patient safety. Central line [central venous catheter]-associated bloodstream infection [BSI] rates are considered a key patient safety measure because such infections are frequent, lead to poor patient outcomes, are costly to the medical system and are preventable," Dr. Michael Y. Lin, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues wrote in the Nov. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Publishing infection rates on hospital report cards, which is increasingly required by regulatory agencies, is intended to facilitate interhospital comparisons that inform health care consumers ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections

New Drug-Resistant 'Superbug' Reaches U.S. Shores

Posted 14 Sep 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY Sept. 14 – A new antibiotic-resistant germ that apparently has it origins in India has sickened a handful of people in North America, with three of the cases reported in the United States, health officials said Tuesday. But the bacterium – designated New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase NDM-1 – is a close genetic cousin of another bacterium that's been present in the United States for many years. Both germs produce an enzyme that makes them resistant to a group of antibiotics called carbapenems, which include drugs such as penicillin and ampicillin. "NDM-1 is a newly recognized mechanism of resistance that allows certain bacteria to become resistant to certain antibiotics," said Dr. Alexander J. Kallen, a medical epidemiologist and outbreak response coordinator with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. "Unfortunately, ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections

A Radical Plan To Save Antibiotics

Posted 7 Sep 2010 by Drugs.com

From Guardian Web (September 7, 2010) What are we to do about the diminishing power of antibiotics - once the miracle drugs that looked set to end infectious diseases? We know the problem is becoming very serious - here is a piece I wrote about the alarming prospects for a future without antibiotics. But we don’t hear much in the way of imaginative answers. So it’s refreshing to read a paper out this morning from Aaron Kesselheim, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Kevin Outterson, a professor at Boston University Law School. Their analysis, published in the journal Health Affairs, says the usual idea, to give pharmaceutical companies financial incentives to invent and manufacture more antibiotics, won’t work. One of the reasons we are in this parlous state of affairs, they say, is that drug companies in the past have tried too hard to sell more ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections, Amoxicillin, Doxycycline, Bactrim, Penicillin, Cephalexin, Azithromycin, Cipro, Metronidazole, Zithromax, Levaquin, Augmentin, Flagyl, Ciprofloxacin, Keflex

Travel for Surgery May Help Spread New Superbug

Posted 11 Aug 2010 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 11 – A gene that makes bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics has appeared in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, researchers have found. The so-called NDM-1 gene has also been identified in the United Kingdom in patients who underwent surgery in India. Researchers warn that the appearance of the antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria is worrisome because it could spread around the world due to the fact that people in Europe and the United States often travel internationally for medical procedures. The researchers, led by Timothy Walsh of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, first discovered the gene in 2009 in samples of pneumonia and E. coli bacteria taken from a Swedish patient in India. The bacteria with the gene resist various types of antibiotics, including those specifically designed to treat infections caused by drug-resistant germs. The researchers ... Read more

Related support groups: Infections

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