The Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System in Dallas prevented healthcare-associated infection rates from rising during the pandemic — and reduced burnout among infection prevention and control team members — through a 14-month initiative, according to a study published April 26 in the American Journal of Infection Control.

Over the last six months, 31 patients at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center have been infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae and four have since died, NPR affiliate KUOW reported April 25.

UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Ill., hasn't seen a central-line-associated blood infection since December 2021 — an accomplishment that took coordinated planning and multidisciplinary collaboration. 

Staff and visitors will be required to mask up at Santa Rosa (Calif.) Medical Center amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than a dozen hospital workers and patients, The San Francisco Chronicle reported April 20. 

Hygiene practices have come a long way since the CDC first published national hygiene guidelines in the 1980s. With so much to keep track of, a nurse leader summarized some of the latest practice recommendations and strategies to increase hand hygiene compliance in an April 18 blog post for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. 

Wearing masks at grocery stores, on airplanes, subways and buses was the norm during the height of the pandemic. Now, most mask mandates only remain at hospitals and in healthcare settings, but experts say it is time to walk back those policies.

Like many things in life, diseases and pathogens are not linear. What was once under control may resurface or spike due to evolving global conditions — which is something experts from the CDC and American Medical Association are continuously preparing to manage.

About 50 percent of healthcare workers with symptomatic COVID-19 in a new study showed up for work, indicating concern over high workload burden for coworkers and personal responsibility.

Las Vegas-based Veterans Affairs Southern Nevada Healthcare System has stopped testing asymptomatic patients for COVID-19 before surgical procedures, it announced April 10.

From 2019 to 2021, 17 states reported their first case of Candida auris, a yeast fungal infection becoming more resistant to treatment. Three Massachusetts General Hospital experts told Becker's the three ways to contain the spread.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed two new standards to reduce ethylene oxide emissions and protect workers exposed to the gas during sterilization processes. 

From drug resistance to the growing threat of Candida auris, today's infection preventionists face a growing to-do list with limited resources. 

In a large hospital in London, removing mask rules for visitors and staff did not result in a "statistically significant change" in the rate of COVID-19 infections, a study published April 6 found, adding more questions to the swirling debate of mask efficacy against the coronavirus. 

Observing military tank training prompted John Moses, PhD, a professor and researcher at Cold Spring Harbor (N.Y.) Laboratory, to develop "shape-shifting" antibiotics in an effort to fight rising instances of drug resistance.

The first human to be infected with a deadly plant fungus has made a full recovery after two years of treatment, The Jerusalem Post reported April 2.

Researchers have identified what may be the first documented human infection of a rare bacteria from an iguana bite, CNN reported April 2. 

As Paxlovid is "blunting SARS[-CoV-]2 disease pathogenesis," there are multiple transmissible coronavirus variants circulating resistant to the antiviral's main ingredient, according to a study published March 29 in Science Advances.

Meredith Hulsey, DO, has been named chief medical officer at Odessa, Texas-based Medical Center Hospital, according to Odessa American. Dr. Hulsey, a pathologist, was trained at MCH; she returned Jan. 3 to begin her new role, after five years away. 

Hospital leaders are ready for COVID-19 to go away and never come back. Becker's editorial statistics confirm interest in COVID-19 content has fallen in recent months. 

Health systems spend millions obtaining the latest technology to create state-of-the-art facilities and to build reputations for quality and innovation. But failing to maintain consistency in relatively low-tech, low-cost infection prevention strategies like hand hygiene can undermine reputation, patient outcomes and the financial bottom line across all practice areas.