Infection Control

• New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show urgency of vaccination adherence.
• Between the period 2005–2006—before the 2-dose vaccine recommendation—and 2013–2014, the overall incidence of varicella infection declined by 84.6%.
• The largest declines were reported among children aged 5 to 9 years (89.3%) and 10 to 14 years (84.8%).

• Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported notifiable disease in the United States; 350,062 gonorrhea cases were reported in 2014.
• Infection is often asymptomatic so the number of cases is very likely under reported.
• Treatment with ceftriaxone 250mg as a single intramuscular dose plus azithromycin 1g orally is thought by CDC experts to still be effective.
• The number of U.S. cases of gonorrhea where strains showed "decreased susceptibility" to a key antibiotic, azithromycin, increased significantly from 0.6% in 2013 to 2.5% in 2014.

• By taking tenofovir and emtricitabine daily, individuals at high risk of contracting HIV can reduce infection risk to near zero.
• When used with condoms and other prevention methods, HIV infection risk can be virtually eliminated.
• Pre-exposure prophylaxis combines drug therapy, physical barriers, and immune-system conditioning to reduce the risk of HIV infection during exposure to the virus.
• Numerous important studies have demonstrated the potential for this strategy to reduce HIV-infection rates.

According to the history travel warning from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention:

• Pregnant women should not travel to this area.
• Pregnant women and their partners living in or traveling to this area should follow steps to prevent mosquito bites.
• Women and men who live in or traveled to this area and who have a pregnant sex partner should use condoms or other barriers to prevent infection every time they have sex or not have sex during the pregnancy.

• Four cases of Zika direct human infection in Miami are highly likely to have been caused by infected mosquitoes.
• The Florida Department of Health has documented the first instances of local transmission in the continental U.S.
• The four cases involve three men and one woman who are called “very likely” to have contracted the disease locally from Zika infected mosquitoes.

• Two people have now died in the U.S. from complications of Zika infection.
• The first case of female-to-male transmission has been detected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• More than 1300 cases of Zika infection have been detected in the U.S.
• The CDC elevated its response efforts to a Level 1 activation, the highest response level at the agency.
• The World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
• The virus is now widespread in nearly 50 countries throughout South America and the Caribbean and continues to spread rapidly in the Americas, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

• Florida reports 10 new cases of Zika, the largest one-day announcement ever in the U.S.
• Total case in U.S. approaches 1000.
• No vector-borne cases yet reported in U.S.
• Nearly 300 pregnant, Zika-infected Americans currently being monitored by the CDC.
• Zika linked to microcephaly, seizures and spasticity, facial abnormalities, and problems with feeding and vision in newborns.
• Disease linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome and Zika-related eye injury in adults.

• Nearly 300 pregnant, Zika-infected Americans currently being monitored by the CDC.
• Zika linked to microcephaly, seizures and spasticity, facial abnormalities, and problems with feeding and vision in newborns.
• Disease linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome and Zika-related eye injury in adults.
• Nearly 6000 cases of microcephaly have been confirmed in Brazil.

• C. difficile infection strikes patients with co-morbid conditions significantly more often.
• Annual cost of C. difficile infection estimated at nearly $7 million.
• Improper use of antibiotic in the perioperative period can lead to postoperative C. difficile colitis, among other negative outcomes.
• C. difficile infection following cervical spine surgery is associated with significantly increased cost, poor outcome, and extended hospital stay.

• According to the CDC, deaths related to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection reached an all-time high in 2014.
• HCV was the most lethal infectious disease in 2014.
• Mortality continues to increase despite an available cure and improvements in treatment.
• Greatest mortality rate is among people born between 1945 and 1965, many of whom do not know they are infected.

• Health care-associated infection outbreaks have occurred in outpatient settings due to lapses in infection-prevention protocols
• Cross-sectional survey published in the American Journal of Infection Control used medical student observers of infection prevention, hand hygiene, and injection safety in outpatient settings.
• Of the 163 injection safety observations, only 66% of the preparations complied with all of the recommended infection-prevention steps.
• Outpatients are a considerable risk of infection transmission do to these lapses which are easily avoided by following established protocols.

• The U.S. death rate from tuberculosis (TB) has increased recently.
• TB remains highly contagious and frequently lethal.
• A number of U.S. states have seen increases in TB rates and mortality.
• An accurate TB detection assay could considerably reduce healthcare expenditures.