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Influenza had a major impact on the nations hospitals this season, filling up intensive care units and leading to staff shortages. Currently, there is no standard that requires immunization of health care workers, but the Joint Commission requires hospitals to be in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. A vaccine against the H5N1 virus could be in clinical trials by this summer.
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In light of the recent rabies outbreak due to transplant of infected organs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reiterating that exposure to feces, urine, blood, or other body fluids is not considered a risk for rabies transmission. The rabies virus cannot survive on surfaces in the environment for any substantial period of time.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions new draft guidelines for patient isolation have been criticized for not being aggressive enough in identifying and eradicating patient reservoirs of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). However, the guidelines include a section on enhanced surveillance and infection control measures for ICPs who want to ratchet up their efforts against MDROs.
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Two of the nations leading health care epidemiologists recently held a provocative debate on the controversial topic of active surveillance cultures for multidrug-resistant pathogens. As infection control professionals are well aware, the topic has become one of the hottest issues in the field. Accordingly, the debate was recently held in Phoenix at the annual conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
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The Consumers Union in Washington, DC, has drafted the following model legislation designed for patient safety advocates to introduce in individual states as the Hospital Infections Disclosure Act. Highlights of the draft are summarized as follows in this article.
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