Tag: bacteria

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

Phage Treatment of an Aortic Graft Infected with Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Another phage therapy success. Bacteria-killing Viruses found in a pond knocked out an antibiotic resistant infection. Management of prosthetic vascular graft infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be a significant... read more

The Effects of Antibiotic Cycling and Mixing on Antibiotic Resistance in ICU

Whether antibiotic rotation strategies reduce prevalence of antibiotic-resistant, Gram-negative bacteria in intensive care units (ICUs) has not been accurately established. We aimed to assess whether cycling of antibiotics... read more

FDA Approves Treatment of Patients with Hospital-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia and Ventilator-Associated Bacterial Pneumonia

FDA has approved Allergan's supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to expand the approved use of AVYCAZ® (ceftazidime and avibactam) to include the treatment of hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia and ventilator-associated... read more

Urine Test Developed to Test for Tuberculosis

An international team of researchers has developed a urine test that can be used to detect tuberculosis (TB) in human patients. Alessandra Luchini and her team have developed a urine test for TB that gives results in 12 hours.... read more

How Bacteria May Help Regulate Blood Pressure

While bacteria once had negative connotations, scientists are now saying it could be good for you. Smell receptors in kidneys sniff out signals from gut bacteria for cues to moderate blood pressure. Some years ago, when Jennifer... read more

A New Combination of Antibiotic and Inhibitor

Intensivists have another antibiotic combination to treat severe infections caused by gram-negative bacteria with the FDA’s approval of Vabomere (meropenem, combined with the beta-lactamase inhibitor called vaborbactam).... read more

Faecal Transplant Effectively Treats Recurrent or Unresponsive Clostridium Difficile

Using a faecal microbiota transplant cured 92% of people with Clostridium difficile that had recurred or had not responded to antibiotics. Faecal transplant also had a lower risk of treatment failure than the antibiotic vancomycin.... read more