Search Tag: infection control
2024 03 Jul
The NHS, a cornerstone of the UK healthcare system, faces ongoing challenges in managing the absenteeism of its dedicated staff. This recent report analyses the monthly sickness absence rates from December 2023 to February 2024, offering a comprehensive view across NHS England regions, staff groups, and the primary reasons behind these absences....Read more
2024 15 Feb
Since the last assessment by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in 2021, the spread of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) sequence type 23 (ST23) across European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) nations has notably intensified. The tally of nations reporting such cases has more than doubled, leaping from...Read more
2021 31 Jan
A new research looks into the use of digital contact tracing (DCT) technologies during the pandemic, based on a real-life controlled experiment in Spain. You might also like : Automated Contact Tracing: Is It Efficient? While several countries have deployed DCT applications, to date there is no evidence that such digital...Read more
2021 24 Jan
The overwhelming majority of people in the UK support the use of co-location tracking technologies and introduction of immunity passports by the authorities to contain the spread of COVID-19, a new study shows (Lewandowsky et al. 2021) . You might also like: (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)? COVID-19 ‘Immunity Passports’...Read more
2020 17 Dec
A group of researchers from Germany has looked into the challenges of communication between healthcare sector and the wider public about COVID-19. The study specifically focused on various approaches to communicating the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. You might also like: COVID-19: Immunity-Based Strategies are ‘Flawed’ ...Read more
2020 12 Dec
Essential workers, especially those in healthcare, have a greater risk of COVID-19 due to the nature of their work. Aside from healthcare workers (HWCs), however, not much is known as to which other occupational groups are most at risk for infection. You might also like: How Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 Varies Across Hospital Settings...Read more
2020 18 Nov
A new analysis provides insights into how democratic institutions play a significant role in the way countries mount quick policy response to existential threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Shvetsova et al. 2020). You might also like: Global COVID-19 Response: “A Collective Failure” When institutional systems...Read more
2020 12 Oct
With the current COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals face higher infection risk arising from both community exposure and occupational hazards. As noted in a new study by Harvard and Massachusetts General Brigham researchers (Shenoy et al. 2020), COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests show persistently positive results among healthcare workers....Read more
2020 12 Oct
Spea kers: MONDAY 12TH OCTOBER – FUTURE PROOFING – PRESENTATIONS Martin Kiernan Visiting Clinical Fellow, Richard Wells Research Centre, University of West London Professor Enrique Castro-Sánchez Lecturer, City, University of London TUESDAY 13TH OCTOBER – RESILIENCE - PRESENTATION Professor Cath Noakes...Read more
2020 28 Sep
The open-source BioDynaMo platform was developed at CERN to assist life scientists in creating biological simulations. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the platform has been adapted to simulate how the coronavirus spreads in populations, which can help to control the pandemic and inform decisions for similar outbreaks in the future....Read more
2020 08 Jul
One of the biggest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the delivery of mass critical care. SARS-CoV-2 has put a significant strain on intensive care in most countries across the globe. This has become even more of a challenge because of a lack of staff and essential supplies. It is evident that in order to better cope with such a challenging...Read more
2020 18 May
Since the discovery of coronavirus disease (COVID 19) in the city of Wuhan, China, hospitals all over the world have been trying to deal with this serious pandemic. COVID-19 has already infected hundreds of healthcare workers and has resulted in some deaths. Since healthcare workers, including radiologists, have to constantly interact with patients...Read more
2020 16 May
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is now a global pandemic, and almost every country is facing problems on how to prevent its spread. While the majority of patients with COVID-19 can recover as outpatients, a significant number require admission to the ICU for more aggressive medical care. The ICU is vulnerable to contamination with organisms, and...Read more
2020 30 Apr
The existing guidelines on special separation in healthcare facilities are based on scarce and outdated evidence, a study has found. You may also like: Policy, Guidance and Recommendations for COVID-19 Decision-Making According to a globally accepted rule of infection control, when performing triage, medical staff do not...Read more
2020 24 Mar
The Current Situation and Challenge of COVID-19 Over 170,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The number of confirmed cases outside the Chinese mainland has already reached over 90,000. On March 11th, WHO officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. No doubt that mechanical ventilation is one of the most effective therapy strategies...Read more
2020 16 Mar
A Polish company has developed software that deploys data to identify people at risk of carrying COVID-19. The firm, DataWalk, taps into data like immigration records, mobile phone data and data about affected individuals to identify potential ‘super carriers’ who resist the disease and are unaware how widely they can infect others....Read more
2020 06 Mar
Healthcare workers can be protected during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak with the application of proper infection control measures, an example from Hong Kong shows. You may also like: 3-step 15sec hand-rubs reduce infection & improve hygiene compliance A recent study (Cheng at al. n.d.) from a research team at Queen Mary...Read more
2019 12 Sep
ICUs in the UK have seen an 80% drop in bloodstream infections according to NIHR Guy's and St Thomas' Biomedical Research Centre-funded research. In collaboration with Guy's and St Thomas' clinicians and researchers from ICNARC (Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre), the study analysed 1 million adult patients from 276 NHS ICUs across the...Read more
2019 19 Jul
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become an established tool for the rapid assessment and diagnosis of patients across a variety of medical disciplines, not least in the high-octane environment of intensive care medicine. Dr. Timm Steuber, senior consultant and head of the ICU at Evangelisches Krankenhaus Unna, Germany, discusses his day-to-day...Read more
2019 16 Apr
The spread of infectious diseases in hospitals and the increase in hospital deaths due to Health Care Acquired Infections is one of the leading concerns and main focus of clinicians worldwide. Hand hygiene in healthcare has proven to be the single most effective, simple and low-cost heath improvement component to increase infection control quality...Read more
2018 07 Nov
Making the ultrasound scan a safer examination A sonographer and a microbiologist working together to increase awareness of infection control in the ultrasound world. Over the past few years, these two Australians have published extensively in the field of infection control in medical ultrasound practice. Whilst Sue performs...Read more
2018 01 Aug
It was in the late 1840s when Ignaz Semmelweis, as head of the maternity services in a Vienna hospital, observed that women cared for by physicians were more likely to die (13-18%) from infection than women cared for by midwives (2%). Recognising that infection control was critical, he implemented mandatory handwashing that brought mortality rate...Read more
2018 09 May
Leadership rounding is known to be an effective way to boost staff morale and keep them connected with your hospital. According to new research, such practice could be the key to better infection control. This is because leadership rounding can create a sense of "psychologic safety," which makes frontline staff and clinicians more comfortable revealing...Read more
2016 13 Sep
In-line Proxima blood gas analyser maintains isolation and reduces blood handling Operating as a closed system, the Proxima in-line blood gas monitoring system keeps infection control simple and effective Sphere Medical , an innovative company in critical care monitoring and diagnostics equipment, announces that it will be discussing...Read more
2016 28 Mar
A combination of strict antimicrobial stewardship and comprehensive infection control measures led to a 10-fold reduction in multi-drug resistant (MDR) A. Baumannii that had become endemic in a Korean intensive care unit (ICU). The initative is described in a recent paper in the Korean Journal of Internal Medicine . Shinhye Cheon, Division...Read more