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Electronically delivered prescribing feedback and decision support interventions reduced antibiotic prescribing for respiratory infection (RTI) in adults by 12%, according to the results of a clinical trial published this week in the British Medical Journal.
Protection against flu was 47% overall and 46% against the predominant H1N1 strain.
Six months of decolonization lowered MRSA rates 30% and any type of infection 17%.
British investigators conducted an international survey and found that postgraduate training and support in antibiotic prescribing remain low among nurses and pharmacists, and, although antibiotic policies and committees are established in most institutions, surveillance of antibiotic use is not, according to a new report in Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control.
Bunia, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the 19th health district to confirm an Ebola case, the DRC's ministry of health said today in its daily update.
The case in Bunia is in a 6-month-old baby whose mother died from the virus. The mother was from Katwa, and her corpse was intercepted in Komanda, where the baby is currently being treated in an Ebola treatment center.
The developments lift the outbreak total to 823 cases, including 517 deaths.
Stewardship programs were tied to lower fluoroquinolone prescribing, but some prescribing appeared to shift to after hospital discharge.
A team of dentists, pharmacists, and physicians at the University of Illinois reported today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases that implementation of a comprehensive antibiotic stewardship intervention in a dental practice was associated with a significant improvement in antibiotic prescribing.
Today health officials in Saudi Arabia and Oman reported one new case of MERS-CoV each. This is the sixth case recorded in recent weeks in Oman; in Saudi Arabia, the new case is possibly linked to an ongoing hospital outbreak in Wadi ad-Dawasir.
According to the Muscat Daily yesterday, the Omani Ministry of Health tweeted that a new patient had been diagnosed as having MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus).
Vaccine mistrust after problems with the launch of Dengvaxia is one factor fueling the Philippines' outbreak.
Also, the health ministry reports 3 more cases in 3 different locations.
In an ongoing surge of MERS-CoV activity, Saudi Arabia's health ministry today announced nine new cases, including seven that are possibly linked to a hospital outbreak in Wadi ad-Dawasir, according to an update to its epidemiological week 7 report.
New research by scientists with the University of Mississippi Medical Center indicates that 30-day hospital readmission among patients who survived initial hospitalization with Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections is common and costly. The findings appeared yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The 5 recent Omani cases involve women from North Batinah governorate who lived in the same household.
Researchers are trying to establish how many deaths can be attributed to antibiotic resistance.
Over the weekend and through today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) health ministry reported 16 more lab-confirmed Ebola cases, 13 of them from Katwa, the outbreak's current hot spot. Also, in a Feb 9 update, health officials reported 7 more probable cases, all from Katwa involving people who became ill in November and December and died between November and January.
Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that health workers are investigating potential exposures to a drug-resistant Brucella strain RB51 in 19 states. The strain comes from raw (unpasteurized) milk from Miller's Biodiversity Farm in Quarryville, Penn.
The new drug is a 'modernized' version of tetracycline, designed to address antibiotic resistance, but its clinical role isn't yet clear.
Transmission can be amplified in health settings when early cases aren't identified and isolated early and when proper infection prevention controls aren't in place.
Flu is widespread in 47 states, and the CDC reports 4 more pediatric flu deaths.
