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A new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in Washington, DC, urges EDs to create systems in which staff vaccinated for smallpox can be called up quickly in the event of an outbreak.
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Draft guidance by public health officials preparing for a seasonal resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) calls for taking the controversial step of masking all incoming patients with respiratory symptoms, Hospital Infection Control has learned.
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Diverging from the position taken by the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will not urge influenza vaccination for the 2003-2004 season specifically as a response to the possible return of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Hospital Infection Control has learned.
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There is an increasing emphasis in infection control on doing active surveillance cultures and detecting and isolating patients colonized with pathogens such as vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
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Editors note: As this issue of Hospital Infection Control went to press, these studies were presented in Chicago at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Look for more in-depth coverage of this conference in our next issue
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Draft guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ratchet up increasing infection control and administrative measures depending on whether severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has appeared globally, within a community, or within a facility.
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The following questions and answers are summarized with permission from an educational brochure developed at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, for patients who are being placed in contact isolation:
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While the flap continues over fire safety and placing alcohol hand hygiene dispensers in hospitals, the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) has developed some interim guidelines to help infection control professionals.
