Editor's Note The Leapfrog Group, on May 3, announced that its new Hospital Safety Grade shows a significant increase in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, spiking to a 5-year high and remaining high. Their analysis found that the average: Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) ratio increased 60% Methicillin-resistant…

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Editor's Note The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) announced May 1 that it has created a series of ‘Playbooks’ to help infection preventionists (IPs) and epidemiologists operationalize prevention efforts to help fight emerging infectious diseases. The pathogen-specific playbooks outline recommended practices for outbreak response, including: Pathogen…

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Editor's Note In response to questions, on April 21, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided an update to its Safety Communication that enables the use of existing inventory of the O&M Halyard FLUIDSHIELD Surgical N95 Respirator Masks, Orange (Regular), Level 3, (Model 46727). The FDA recommends that, if necessary,…

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Editor's Note This study, led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, finds that air flush cycles used in automated endoscope reprocessors (AERs) may not adequately dry endoscope channels, particularly narrow air/water channels. Endoscopes were reprocessed per protocol with a 3-minute or 10-minute air flush following reprocessing.…

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Editor's Note In this study, Canadian researchers succeeded in isolating infectious particles of the COVID-19 virus from air samples collected from hospital rooms. A total of 30 samples were collected from 10 different rooms of patients with COVID-19 and then frozen in a biobank for 14 months. The researchers were…

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Editor's Note This study from Finland examines the associations between nurse understaffing and limited work experience on the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Patient and staff data from 40 care units and 261,067 admissions in one hospital district in Finland were analyzed. The researchers found that 1- or 2-day exposure…

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Editor's Note This study from HCA Healthcare, Nashville, Tennessee, finds an increase in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in patients with COVID-19, but no increase in patients without COVID-19. More than 5 million hospitalizations in 182 hospitals between 2020 and 2022 were included in the analysis. The incidence of HAIs per 100,…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers from the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network Surveillance Team, Duke University School of Medicine,  Durham, North Carolina, find that surgical site infection (SSI) rates did not decrease in community hospitals from 2013 to 2018. SSI data was collected from patients having 26 common surgical…

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Editor's Note The World Health Organization on March 30 reported that although there is an overall downward trend in COVID-19 cases and deaths, 21 countries are reporting increases in cases of Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, particularly India. XBB.1.16 has a similar profile to XBB.1.5, which is the dominant strain in the…

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Editor's Note This investigation by the Kentucky Department for Public Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of eight cases of rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) infections in a Kentucky hospital after total joint replacement procedures found that the presence of a particular OR nurse was significantly associated with the…

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