Tag: bacteria
Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
A witty, irreverent tour of history's worst plagues―from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio―and a celebration of the heroes who fought them. In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and... read more
Procalcitonin does not curb antibiotic use for lower respiratory tract infection
In the Procalcitonin Antibiotic Consensus Trial (ProACT), the use of a procalcitonin-guided antibiotic prescription guideline did not result in less exposure to antibiotics than did usual care among patients presenting to... read more
Hospital-acquired Infections – Adding Process Metrics
So far, we've only been looking at metrics that are really big and important. This is certainly a good place to start. To move beyond this, I'd like to introduce the concept of Outcome vs Process Metrics. Outcome Metrics... read more
Study Shows How Bacteria Spread from Sink Drainpipes to Patients
Many recent reports have found multidrug resistant bacteria living in hospital sink drainpipes, putting them in close proximity to vulnerable patients. But how the bacteria find their way out of the drains, and into patients... read more
Probiotic and Synbiotic Therapy in Critical Illness
Critical illness is characterized by a loss of commensal flora and an overgrowth of potentially pathogenic bacteria, leading to a high susceptibility to nosocomial infections. Probiotics are living non-pathogenic microorganisms,... read more
You Can Get Sick From Germs on Hospital Floors
When you enter the hospital, probably the last thing that you’re thinking about is the floors. However, an emerging body of research suggests that hospital floors are covered with bacteria and could serve as a potential... read more
Decontaminants Don’t Cut Bloodstream Infection Risk in Ventilated ICU Patients
The use of digestive and oral decontaminants in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) who are mechanically ventilated and who have moderate to high antibiotic resistance is not associated with a reduction in ICU-acquired... read more
Antimicrobial copper touch surfaces may help fight global threat of antibiotic resistance
Copper is a powerful antimicrobial with rapid, broad-spectrum efficacy against bacteria and viruses, and has been shown to kill disease-causing pathogens, including influenza A, E.coli and norovirus, and resistant bacteria... read more
Bacteria ‘alarm clock’ may cause repeat infections in patients
Scientists have discovered a bacteria 'alarm clock' that wakes dormant Salmonella in the body, allowing the bug to trigger a repeat infection. The researchers, from Imperial College London, say the 'alarm clock' is shared... read more
A Bold New Strategy for Stopping the Rise of Superbugs
Scientists have pinpointed a molecule that accelerates the evolution of drug-resistant microbes. Now they're trying to find a way to block it. The British chemist Leslie Orgel reputedly once said that "evolution is cleverer... read more
Can probiotics be an alternative to chlorhexidine for oral care in the mechanically ventilated patient?
In this multicentre study, we could not demonstrate any difference between Lp299 and CHX used in oral care procedures regarding their impact on colonisation with emerging potentially pathogenic enteric bacteria in the oropharynx... read more
Imaging platform captures hard-to-track bacterial lung infections in real time
Ahsan Akram and colleagues have created a fluorescent imaging probe that can quickly and accurately detect hard-to-trace Gram-negative bacteria (one of the major bacterial groups) in human lungs within minutes. Their first-in-human... read more
Decontamination of Oral or Digestive Tract for Patients in the ICU
The study by Wittekamp and colleagues in this issue of JAMA evaluating strategies for decontamination of mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) fills an important gap in the evidence regarding these... read more
Drug-resistant Superbug Spreading in Hospitals
A superbug resistant to all known antibiotics that can cause "severe" infections or even death is spreading undetected through hospital wards across the world, scientists in Australia warned on Monday. Researchers at the... read more
Difficult-to-Treat Resistance in Gram-negative Bacteremia at 173 US Hospitals: Retrospective Cohort Analysis of Prevalence, Predictors, and Outcome of Resistance to All First-line Agents
Nonsusceptibility to first-line antibiotics is associated with decreased survival in GNBSIs. DTR is a simple bedside prognostic measure of treatment-limiting coresistance. The Premier Database was analyzed for inpatients... read more
Bacterial protein structure could aid development of new antibiotics
Bacterial cells have an added layer of protection, called the cell wall, that animal cells don't. Assembling this tough armor entails multiple steps, some of which are targeted by antibiotics like penicillin and vancomycin.... read more
Effectiveness of targeted enhanced terminal room disinfection on hospital-wide acquisition and infection with multidrug-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile
The hospital environment is a source of pathogen transmission. The effect of enhanced disinfection strategies on the hospital-wide incidence of infection has not been investigated in a multicentre, randomised controlled trial.... read more
