Health. Care. | An Educational Blog

In a widely-circulated interview, President Biden stated that the pandemic was, in effect, over. While not an official statement and also clarified over the next few days, the idea that the worst of the pandemic is over has been echoed by global medical experts. So what now? A return to "normal" in the medical field does not mean no more infections; in fact, it means returning to a world where almost 100,000 people die each year from infections they acquired while receiving medical care - most of which are preventable. There are many similarities between a pandemic and the on-going crisis of hospital-acquired infections, and in today's post, we will explore them. 

Bacteria have been around for, oh, 3.5 billion years or so. They didn't achieve this longevity without collecting a few tricks up their sleeves. Among them is the ability to adapt to their environments from one generation to the next, activating certain genes during times of distress, changes in humidity, and access to nutrients. The resulting tricks are known collectively as "resistance." Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics such as penicillin, creating dangerous drug-resistant strains. They can also become resistant to disinfectants, including those used in today's hospitals. In today's post, we'll learn why that matters.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report addressing the impact COVID-19 has had on antimicrobial resistance. While other reports have covered the incidence of hospital-associated infections during COVID, this report focused on the prevalence of drug-resistant strains of the pathogens causing the HAIs. The report reveals that the top drug-resistant pathogens are transmitted via contaminated surfaces, which become reservoirs for these strains that elude our most powerful treatments. In today's post, we will share their findings and their implications for infection prevention.

Pharmacists are an essential part of a medical team. While many people believe the pharmacist only dispenses medication, their impact on healthcare is far more significant. Hospital pharmacists, for example, can be responsible for making purchasing decisions, monitoring drug therapy, preparing IV medication, and overseeing drug administration. It is this last responsibility that has the greatest impact on infection control: The hospital pharmacists can play a significant role in antibiotic stewardship, one of the key components of reducing dangerous infections.

One of the tools available to infection preventionists, hospital epidemiologists and healthcare practitioners is the antibiogram. While not all facilities or networks will have an up-to-date version of this report, they are becoming more common. What is an antibiogram and how can it be used? In simple terms, an antibiogram is a report that shows how susceptible strains of pathogens are to a variety of antibiotics.

A study demonstrated that regular soap has the same impact as antibacterial soap at killing bacterial during hand washing. Today we'll explore this study, the chemical being evaluated, and what these results mean to the debate about whether or not antibacterial soaps are helpful.

The infection control landscape is difficult to navigate without an understanding of the key terms used by experts in the field. Some of these terms have found their way into every-day language, but often without the technical nuances that can make a big difference in a health care setting. Today we will start to demystify the terminology of infection control, starting with four "anti" terms.

Staphylococcus might as well be the mob when it comes to hospital acquired infections. Strains from this bacterial crime family account for 38% of all HAIs and affect all the major sites for infections. Because it is a part of our natural human flora (our own personal biome), it has ready access to opportunities to enter the body, either through an incision or a medical device. 

With Take Your Cat to the Vet Day tomorrow and National Dog Day falling next Monday, we wanted to talk about the health of our furry friends, their medical care, and how they have evolved to fight infections as they moved from the wild into our homes. Today’s post will shed some light on how animals join us in the fight against pathogens while also revealing additional opportunities for Preventive|Biocidal Surfaces™ to play a role in reducing the deadliest of those pathogens.

Most of the attention regarding antibiotic-resistant MRSA is found in hospitals and healthcare settings, places where strains of the common Staphylococcus aureus have evolved to resist these treatments. But there is a type of MRSA that is spread outside of healthcare settings, among healthy individuals. This type is called "Community-Acquired MRSA," (CA-MRSA) and can also be difficult to treat. Today we'll explore what sets this particular strain of Staph apart from its more harmful, hospital-associated cousin.