Significantly fewer infectious organisms are transferred through a fist bump than through a handshake or even a "high five," so fist bumps would be a more hygienic way of greeting others, says a study from the United Kingdom released today in the American Journal of Infection Control, the journal of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
The evidence-based guidance is part of a series on preventing hospital infections.
Several factors contributed, the WHO says, while experts call for case-control studies.
The World Health Assembly (WHA) again did not decide on when the last laboratory stocks of variola virus, the pathogen that causes smallpox, should be destroyed, Nature reported today on its news blog.
Camel populations in Kenya have had antibodies to the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) as far back as 1992, according to an international research team that tested stored samples, according to a study yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The health ministry of Pakistan, the country with the most polio cases of late, has committed to setting up mandatory immunization counters for travelers at all its airports, border crossings, and seaports in response to yesterday's World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of a worldwide polio emergency, according to a story in the current issue of Pakistan Today.
As the WHO suggests a slight change in spread, the ECDC calls for higher concern.
One report detailed the burden of healthcare-related infections, and another noted progress.
US hospitals vary widely in how they define and address key drug-resistant bacteria.
The CDC says some clinicians prescribe triple the amount of antibiotics and may put patients at risk.
