{"title":"Protecting patients and peers from healthcare personnel with respiratory viral infections.","authors":"Michael Klompas, Theodore Pak, Chanu Rhee","doi":"10.1017/ice.2025.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2025.12","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143046597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chunyi Zhou, Michael Wiley, Jessica Wiley, Kelly Cawcutt, Elizabeth Grashorn, Kathie Rogers, Emily McCutchen, Peter Iwen, Paul Fey, Mark Rupp
{"title":"Utilizing whole genome sequencing to characterize central line-associated bloodstream infections due to <i>Staphylococcus epidermidis</i>.","authors":"Chunyi Zhou, Michael Wiley, Jessica Wiley, Kelly Cawcutt, Elizabeth Grashorn, Kathie Rogers, Emily McCutchen, Peter Iwen, Paul Fey, Mark Rupp","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.240","DOIUrl":"10.1017/ice.2024.240","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Whole genome sequencing (WGS) and clinical review were used to characterize 14 cases of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) due to <i>Staphylococcus epidermidis</i>. WGS, which demonstrated disparate strains, suggested that 42.9% of <i>S. epidermidis</i> CLABSI cases were due to contamination, while clinical review suggested that 57.1% were contamination events.</p>","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-4"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11883651/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143046600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Martin M Varghese, Samir Memic, Maria M Torres-Teran, Jennifer L Cadnum, William A Rutala, Curtis J Donskey
{"title":"Evaluation of a new technology for terminal sterilization of flexible endoscopes using hydrogen peroxide gas plasma.","authors":"Martin M Varghese, Samir Memic, Maria M Torres-Teran, Jennifer L Cadnum, William A Rutala, Curtis J Donskey","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2024.236","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In laboratory testing, a novel hydrogen peroxide gas plasma endoscope sterilizer consistently reduced vegetative organisms, but not bacterial spores, to undetectable levels in the presence of high organism load (≥6.5 log<sub>10</sub>) and organic material and salts. These findings highlight the importance of meticulous cleaning of endoscopes prior to sterilization.</p>","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143046531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rupak Datta, Eliza Kiwak, Terri Fried, Andrea Benjamin, Lynne Iannone, Sarah Krein, Warren Carter, Andrew Cohen
{"title":"Facilitators of antibiotic decision-making in home-based primary care: a qualitative investigation.","authors":"Rupak Datta, Eliza Kiwak, Terri Fried, Andrea Benjamin, Lynne Iannone, Sarah Krein, Warren Carter, Andrew Cohen","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.241","DOIUrl":"10.1017/ice.2024.241","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Interviews with 22 home-based primary care (HBPC) clinicians revealed that infectious disease physicians and clinical pharmacists facilitate infection management and antibiotic selection, respectively, and that local initiatives within programs support antibiotic prescribing decisions. Interventions that facilitate specialist engagement and tailored approaches that address the unique challenges of HBPC are needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-4"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143046538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elisheva Levine, Samar Abo-Gush, Bath Sheva Ezagui, Ruth David, Puah Kopuit, Naama Bagrish, Todd Zalut, Marc V Assous, Yossi Freier-Dror, Amos M Yinnon, Shmuel Benenson
{"title":"Assessing and upgrading the cleanliness of the emergency department - ERRATUM.","authors":"Elisheva Levine, Samar Abo-Gush, Bath Sheva Ezagui, Ruth David, Puah Kopuit, Naama Bagrish, Todd Zalut, Marc V Assous, Yossi Freier-Dror, Amos M Yinnon, Shmuel Benenson","doi":"10.1017/ice.2025.21","DOIUrl":"10.1017/ice.2025.21","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11790324/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143028771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Meggie Griffin, Kimberly C Claeys, Rebecca J Schwei, Roger L Brown, Michael S Pulia
{"title":"Prioritizing emergency department antibiotic stewardship interventions for skin and soft tissue infections using judgment analysis.","authors":"Meggie Griffin, Kimberly C Claeys, Rebecca J Schwei, Roger L Brown, Michael S Pulia","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.211","DOIUrl":"10.1017/ice.2024.211","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) account for over 2.8 million annual emergency department (ED) visits and often result in suboptimal antibiotic therapy. The objective of this study was to evaluate a set of interventions in minimizing inappropriate prescription of antibiotics for presumed SSTIs in the ED.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Case vignette survey.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>A national sample of emergency medicine (EM) physicians.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Each vignette described a clinical scenario of a presumed SSTI (cellulitis or abscess) and included a unique combination of zero to five interventions (outpatient follow-up, inappropriate antibiotic request flag, thermal imaging for cellulitis or rapid wound MRSA PCR for abscess, patient education/shared decision-making, and clinical decision support). Out of 64 possible vignettes, we asked participants to respond to eight vignettes. Following each vignette, we asked participants if they would prescribe an antibiotic in their everyday practice (yes/no). We built adjusted hierarchical logistic regression models to estimate the probability of prescribing an antibiotic for each intervention and vignette.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Surveys were completed by 113 EM physicians. The thermal imaging, rapid wound MRSA PCR, and patient education/shared decision-making interventions showed the largest decrease (15-20%) in antibiotic prescribing probability. Vignettes with a combination of both a diagnostic intervention (thermal imaging or rapid wound MRSA PCR) and a patient education/shared decision-making intervention had the lowest prescribing probabilities.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We recommend future research focuses on the development and integration of novel diagnostic tools to identify true infection and incorporate shared decision-making to improve diagnosis and management of SSTIs.</p>","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11883652/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143004878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhancing the control of respiratory virus spread: a comprehensive approach integrating airborne virus detection, aerological investigations, and airflow modeling for practical implementation.","authors":"Guillaume Mellon, Nadia Mahjoub, Fabien Metivier, Nathalie Osinski, Audrey Gabassi, Constance Delaugerre, Emmanuel Vanoli, Cyril Crawford, Jérôme Le Goff","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2024.217","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Patients with chronic kidney disease suffer from immune dysfunction, increasing susceptibility to infections. The aim of the study was to investigate air contamination with respiratory viruses in a dialysis unit at a quaternary hospital using molecular detection techniques and to analyze airflow dynamics through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for a comprehensive assessment of air transmission risks.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted dialysis unit air sampling using AerosolSense™ samplers. Air and clinical sampling occurred during three periods in 2022: winter, early, and late fall. A technical team maintained the dialysis unit's ventilation system during mid fall. Ventilation system capacity and airflow rates were measured. CFD simulations were used to evaluate airflow dynamics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The investigation collected 144 air samples, revealing heterogeneous virus detection rates across locations and study periods. Virus positivity correlated with the presence of patients and the effectiveness of the ventilation system. The ratio of virus air positivity to virus patient positivity was 1.84 and 3.35 during the first and the second periods, respectively, and collapsed to 0.64 after maintenance. Airflow rate measurements highlighted a ninefold discrepancy between actual and theoretical airflow (393 m<sup>3</sup>/h <i>vs.</i> 3530 m<sup>3</sup>/h), which was rectified by maintenance actions. Airflow dynamics and particle dispersion visualization through CFD simulations contributed to a better understanding of transmission risks.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Detection of viruses in the air, combined with CFD, revealed deficiencies in air renewal. Maintenance interventions significantly improved airflow dynamics and particle dispersion, reducing airborne virus spread.</p>","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142948155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using electronic medical records in hospital simulation for infection control intervention assessment.","authors":"Fardad Haghpanah, Eili Y Klein","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.224","DOIUrl":"10.1017/ice.2024.224","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Clinical trials for assessing the effects of infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions are expensive and have shown mixed results. Mathematical models can be relatively inexpensive tools for evaluating the potential of interventions. However, capturing nuances between institutions and in patient populations have adversely affected the power of computational models of nosocomial transmission.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, we present an agent-based model of ICUs in a tertiary care hospital, which directly uses data from the electronic medical records (EMR) to simulate pathogen transmission between patients, HCWs, and the environment. We demonstrate the application of our model to estimate the effects of IPC interventions at the local hospital level. Furthermore, we identify the most important sources of uncertainty, suggesting areas for prioritization in data collection.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our model suggests that the stochasticity in ICU infections was mainly due to the uncertainties in admission prevalence, hand hygiene compliance/efficacy, and environmental disinfection efficacy. Analysis of interventions found that improving mean HCW compliance to hand hygiene protocols to 95% from 70%, mean terminal room disinfection efficacy to 95% from 50%, and reducing post-handwashing residual contamination down to 1% from 50%, could reduce infections by an average of 36%, 31%, and 26%, respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In-silico models of transmission coupled to EMR data can improve the assessment of IPC interventions. However, reducing the uncertainty of the estimated effectiveness requires collecting data on unknown or lesser known epidemiological and operational parameters of transmission, particularly admission prevalence, hand hygiene compliance/efficacy, and environmental disinfection efficacy.</p>","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-7"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11883657/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142948296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Curtis D Collins, Eric Hartsfield, Robert K Cleary, Rachel M Kenney, Michael P Veve, Kara K Brockhaus
{"title":"Incidence of surgical infection in cefazolin 3 g versus 2 g for colorectal surgery in obese patients.","authors":"Curtis D Collins, Eric Hartsfield, Robert K Cleary, Rachel M Kenney, Michael P Veve, Kara K Brockhaus","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2024.215","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>To compare the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) between cefazolin 3 g and 2 g surgical prophylaxis in patients weighing ≥120 kg that undergo elective colorectal surgery.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A multicenter, retrospective cohort study was performed utilizing a validated database of elective colorectal surgeries in Michigan acute care hospitals. Adults weighing ≥120 kg who received cefazolin and metronidazole for surgical prophylaxis between 7/2012 and 6/2021 were included. The primary outcome was SSI, which was defined as an infection diagnosed within 30 days following the principal operative procedure. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify variables associated with SSI; the exposure of interest was cefazolin 3 g surgical prophylaxis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 581 patients were included; of these, 367 (63.1%) received cefazolin 3 g, while 214 (36.8%) received 2 g. Patients who received cefazolin 3 g had less optimal antibiotic timing (324 [88.3%] vs 200 [93.5%]; <i>P</i> = .043) and a higher receipt of at least 1 of the prophylaxis antibiotics after incision (22 [6%] vs 5 [2.3%]; <i>P</i> = .043). There was no SSI difference between cefazolin 3 g and 2 g cohorts (23 [6.3%] vs 16 [7.5%], <i>P</i> = .574). When accounting for age, smoking status, and surgical duration, cefazolin 3 g was not associated with a reduction in SSI (adjOR, .64; 95%CI, .32-1.29).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Surgical prophylaxis with cefazolin 3 g, in combination with metronidazole, was not associated with decreased SSI compared to 2 g dosing in obese patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery.</p>","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-5"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142948092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving the ability of psychiatric hospitals to respond to infectious disease outbreaks: lessons learned from the COVID-19 outbreak response in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.","authors":"Manami Nakashita, Katsuki Kurosawa, Munehisa Fukusumi, Fujiko Irie, Minako Kanesaki, Hirofumi Kato, Hitomi Kurosu, Takuya Yamagishi, Yuuki Tsuchihashi, Matthew Griffith, Tomimasa Sunagawa","doi":"10.1017/ice.2024.207","DOIUrl":"10.1017/ice.2024.207","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13663,"journal":{"name":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":"1-2"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11790325/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142948157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}