Articles Tagged With:
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Autoimmune Encephalitis After Herpes Simplex Virus Encephalitis
A recent study showed that about 25% of patients with herpes simplex encephalitis develop neurological symptoms three to six weeks after the infection, pointing toward an autoimmune process with different neurological and psychiatric symptoms. Anti-neuronal antibodies, such as anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies, have been found in this post-viral autoimmune encephalitis presentation.
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Treatable Causes of Rapidly Progressive Dementias
Many cases of rapidly progressive dementia are caused by prion diseases and have no effective treatments. But, with the greater awareness of the presentation for autoimmune encephalitis, these disorders make up an increasing percentage of presenting cases and can be aggressively and successfully treated. The STAM3P score helps to identify potentially treatable cases of this disorder.
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Early Onset Post-Radiation Neuropathy
Biopsy studies of early onset neuropathies seen after radiation therapy consistently show evidence of microvasculitis and other signs of inflammation. Early and rapid treatment with anti-inflammatory medications may be effective in stopping the progression and speeding up recovery.
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Hepatitis E and Neuropathy
In this prospective case-control study of patents with neuralgic amyotrophy, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and Bell’s palsy, an association with acute hepatitis E infection was demonstrated only with neuralgic amyotrophy.
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Necessity and Reinvention: APIC Tries to Hire, Retain IPs
As a generation of infection preventionists (IPs) near career end, it is well to remember that many of them tell a similar story of how they got into the profession. Often, they were working some other clinical job and an opening or temporary need came up in the infection control department. To paraphrase what Hospital Infection Control & Prevention has reported time and again from new IPs to long-established leaders in the field, “I just fell into it and I loved it. I found it fascinating.”
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Incentivizing New Antibiotics to Kill Multidrug-Resistant Bugs
Bacteria have developed resistance to so many antibiotics that a familiar adage about these lifesaving drugs is “use ’em and lose ’em.” Ideas to break this cycle and create a market for new antibiotics include the proposed PASTEUR (Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions To End Upsurging Resistance) Act of 2023, which has been reintroduced in Congress.
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Joint Commission: If You Create Infection Control Policy, Make Sure You Follow It
If infection preventionists adopt or write up an infection control policy — even if it goes beyond existing recommendations and requirements — The Joint Commission will cite or “score” them if the hospital is not following it. Do not put in word what you will not follow in deed, said Sylvia Garcia-Houchins, MBA, RN, CIC, director of infection prevention and control at The Joint Commission.
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Respiratory Triple Play: Vaccination Is the Key
As a trifecta of viruses converge this fall and winter, the United States has an unprecedented infection control counterpunch: vaccines for the 2023-2024 flu season, new shots for respiratory syncytial virus, and the latest formula to protect against COVID-19.
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APIC: SCOTUS Race Ruling: ‘Willfully Ignores’ Challenges Minorities Still Face
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that race cannot be a factor in college, medical, and nursing school admissions was, if nothing else, tone-deaf. The ruling came in the simmering aftermath of a three-year pandemic that exposed widespread inequity in healthcare, and gave rise to the perception of “institutionalized racism” in medicine.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Infectious Disease Approval to Reduce Hospital Clostridioides difficile Cases; Oral Amoxicillin for Syphilis