>>Vaccinate kids to control H1N1 flu – researchers

Targeting children for vaccination may be the best way of using limited supplies of vaccine to control the current H1N1 flu pandemic, British researchers said on Thursday.

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Researchers from the University of Warwick said that vaccinating children rather than adults would not only help protect a group at greatest risk of exposure to the virus, but would also offer protection to unvaccinated adults.

This so-called “herd immunity” effect would mean significantly less vaccine would be needed to help control the spread of H1N1, also known as swine flu, which was first detected in Mexico in April.

Full Article: here.

>>April 15th

The Press Association:  Breakthrough in superbug fight

Queen’s University Belfast may have made a breakthrough discovery in superbug’s natural resistance to disinfectants.

Many types of bacteria, such as MRSA, exist in colonies that adhere to the surfaces of materials.

The colonies often form coatings, known as biofilms, that protect them from antiseptics, disinfectants, and antibiotics.

Assistant director at Quill [Queen's University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (Quill)] Mr Earle added: “We have shown that, when pitted against the ionic liquids (salts) we developed and tested, biofilms offer little or no protection to MRSA, or to seven other infectious micro-organisms.”

>>April 16th

‘We’ve cut MRSA rate to zero’ – city hospital

A hospital in Ireland adopts Scandanavian anti-HAI, which proves dramatically effective.

The Mater Private Hospital in Dublin has cut its MRSA infection rate to zero due to the introduction of a new Scandinavian hygienic programme.

The ‘Search and Destroy’ scheme has been implemented over the past few years and there were zero recorded MRSA-related infections in the hospital in 2008.

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Ms Higgins said that MRSA needs to be tackled by a combination of actions and that this particular technique involves swabbing certain high-risk patients for the infection at the time of admission to hospital.

A representative said that patients with MRSA, as well as those who have a high risk of infection, are isolated from other patients

Superbug payments under spotlight

Investigative news program highlights the millions of pounds paid out in the UK to claims involving HAI:

Millions of pounds were paid out in patient compensation claims involving allegations about hospital superbugs in the past five years, Channel 4 News online has found.

The payout figures, obtained from the NHS under freedom of information (FoI) laws, reveal the number of settlements made to victims when MRSA or C. diff allegations were included as part of their overall claim for compensation for injury.

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According to the figures, obtained from the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), which defends compensation claims for health authorities, £4,000,462 was paid out to 44 claimants who included MRSA allegations as part of their overall claim in 2005, £1,964,617 to 32 claimants in 2006, £4,964,679 to 63 claimants in 2007, and £1,493,410 to 27 claimants last year.

Thousands of patients undergoing treatment or surgery at Scottish hospitals are to be screened for MRSA, Nicola Sturgeon, the Health Secretary, said yesterday.

The national screening programme, which follows pilot programmes by three Scottish health boards, will take place over the next 12 months and will focus on the elderly and people admitted for kidney disease, skin problems and vascular surgery, a group deemed to be most at risk. The only patients not to be screened will be psychiatric, obstetric and paediatric patients.

Ms Sturgeon made the announcement as official figures showed a drop in the number of cases of Clostridium difficile and MRSA in Scottish hospitals.

Full Article: Scottish hospitals to screen patients for superbugs

In a study funded by NIH, Harvard Medical School, and the Irish Health Research Board, researchers have found a method to accurately predict which patients will experience a recurrence of C.difficile infection:

The method correctly identified 77.3% of patients who had recurrent infection in a derivation cohort studied in 1998, according to Ciarán P. Kelly, M.D., of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues.

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C. difficile has become the leading cause of hospital-acquired infectious diarrhea. It affects millions of patients a year. Multiple recurrences are common, despite successful treatment of the initial episode

“This rule is valuable in clinical practice as it defines a high-risk population in whom awareness of the risk can facilitate more prompt recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of recurrent C. difficile,” Dr. Kelly said in a statement.

The rule combines three variables: age, disease severity, and antibiotic use.

Full article:  Clinical Rule Predicts C. Diff Recurrrence

>>March 21st

Simple techniques slash hospital infections: meeting

Jasper Palmer didn’t think he was doing anything special when he balled up his paper hospital gown and stuffed it into one of his gloves. He just knew it was tidy and would stop the gown from spreading germs.

But the technique is one of the simple innovations that has reduced rates of infection with so-called superbugs at his and other hospitals by 26 percent to 62 percent, infection control experts told a meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America in San Diego on Saturday.

>>March 23rd

Simple ideas from hospital staff cut superbug rates

Borrowing ideas from hospital workers who have devised their own clever strategies for reducing superbug spread can lead to huge drops in infection rates throughout a hospital, say infection control experts.

The experts told a meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America in San Diego on Saturday that using an approach called positive deviance (PD) at three U.S. hospitals helped to reduce the incidence of MRSA (multifaceted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) at their facilities by 26 to 62 per cent.

>>March 25th

Northern Ireland scientists find a new weapon in MRSA war

A new weapon that could help wipe out the deadly MRSA virus has been developed by researchers from Northern Ireland.
Experts from Queen’s University have discovered new agents that can kill colonies of MRSA and other antiboitic resistant hospital-acquired infections.

The antimicrobial agents also prevent any growth of the potentially lethal bacteria.

C difficile outbreak leaves three hospital patients dead

Three patients have died as a direct result of a C difficile outbreak at hospital in the South East.

East Sussex Hospitals trust has recorded 62 cases of the infection at Eastbourne District General Hospital since 1 January and has reviewed the histories of the affected patients.

The trust said on Tuesday that three patients had died as a direct result of being infected and it had contributed to a further 10 deaths.

>>March 27th

‘Search and destroy’ kills MRSA

A private hospital in Dublin has instituted a strict ’search-and-destroy’ policy to combat MRSA infections.

See a video of Dr. Fidelma Fitzpatrick from the Irish Health Protection Surveillance Centre discuss the facts of healthcare-associated infections here.

Environmental cleaning intervention reduces transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms in ICUs

A rigorous environmental cleaning intervention can reduce the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other multidrug-resistant organisms in hospital intensive care units (ICUs), according to a new study released today at the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Researchers found that following an enhanced cleaning protocol reduced the spread of MRSA to patients exposed to rooms in which the prior occupant had been colonized or infected.

Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) has published “Hospital infection control strategies for antibiotic-resistant organisms”:

Identified risk factors include:

…increasing age of patient and severity of disease, increasing length of hospital stay, admission to an intensive care unit and proximity to patients carrying an antimicrobial-resistant organism. Use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and/or prolonged use of antibiotics are also risk factors.

Full Article:  “Hospital infection control strategies for antibiotic-resistant organisms”

>>Mar 10/09

Support Services Crucial to Infection Control, Study Says
CUPE says control of HAI is “much more complex than people just washing their hands”:

The research paper draws from reports in countries including Canada, Scotland and the United Kingdom, which note that clinical studies and audits have linked HAI outbreaks with understaffing, increased workload, high turnover and inadequate training.

Charlottetown medical unit reopens after superbug causes lockdown
A Charlottetown hospital, which recently stated an outbreak of MRSA and VRE was over, just re-opened after lockdown to control another superbug problem.

Part of Charlottetown’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital was locked down Monday afternoon and night, and has since reopened after a patient tested positive for a superbug.

Hospital officials are still trying to determine the source of the bacteria.

>>Mar 11/09

How contractors are battling infection during hospital construction
Building Design & Construction looks at how hospital infection control can be considered at the earliest stage of construction or renovation.

Every year, about 90,000 patients in U.S. hospitals contract nosocomial infections — they get sick (or sicker) from something they caught in the hospital. Two or three thousand of them die as a result.

Building Teams are helping to attack this problem by taking steps to control the spread of infection sources during construction of new facilities or additions, or during renovation of existing hospitals.

>>Mar 12/09

Kenta Secures $10M to Advance Antibodies against Nosocomial Infections
Kenta Biotech has raised $10m in private financing to cover the “ongoing development of two antibodies targeting aggressive bacteria that cause nosocomial infections.”

>>Feb 25/09

Reducing bacterial contamination using silver antimicrobial technology
New study examines whether the use of silver-treated materials can help contain the spread of nosocomial infections.

>>Feb 26/09

High-tech innovations to combat MRSA and C. diff are unveiled
Modern methods for combating MRSA to be piloted in seven NHS hospitals.

Portable hand washing stations, infection resistant loos, and pop-up isolation rooms are among the new technologies hospitals will be introducing to combat MRSA and C. diff, ministers said.

>>Feb 16/09

States consider requiring hospitals to screen for MRSA
Four states (California, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) require hospitals to screen high-risk patients for MRSA.  Eight states considered such legislation last year, and Washington and Kentucky filed new bills in late January.

The rate of patients entering the hospital with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus increased eightfold between 1999 and 2006. Politicians in statehouses around the country say hospitals need to take a more active approach to stopping MRSA’s spread.

A show of hands reveals the value of good hygiene
A study at the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center gives a visceral lesson in the need for cleaning protocols and hand hygiene:

To show how infected – and contagious – an asymptomatic carrier could be, a physician examined the patient with an ungloved hand and then pressed his hand into a petri dish. After incubation, researchers were surprised to see MRSA bacteria growing in the dish so thickly that images of the physician’s fingers are easily discernable.

Jury awards $17.5 million to man who lost limbs from MRSA infection
A Texan man has been awarded a multi-million dollar settlement after he lost his limbs to gangrene that set in after septic shock from undiagnosed MRSA.

>>Feb 17/09

Bacterial Infections in Hospitals Decline
Time Magazine writes on the misleading nature of headline-grabbing superbug scares – that despite stories about sports teams and schools, superbugs are still largely found only in hospital settings.

The goal now is to further reduce the risk of MRSA in vulnerable populations by identifying them early on: according to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, 10 states currently require screening of high-risk patients, including those in the ICU and with weaker immune systems, for MRSA, and other states may soon adopt similar screening laws.