Category: Infection Prevention and Control
A Day in the Life of Central Venous Access Devices
This post comes courtesy of Dr. Mark Rupp, who recently published a study in the Journal of Infusion Nursing about outpatient maintenance practices for central venous access devices (CVADs)! Our patients are increasingly receiving intravenous therapy at home via indwelling CVADs. However, limited data exist regarding patients’ experiences with outpatient CVADs. Regina Nailon is the […]
Jun 18, 2019
Preparing for Measles – What You Need to Know
Measles is one of the most contagious infections and is acute respiratory viral infection currently causing an outbreak of infection through the United States. Measles was first described hundreds of years ago and became a reportable infection in the US in 1912. In 1963, the first vaccine for measles became available. Efforts focused on measles […]
Jun 6, 2019
UNMC IDSHEAROES Enter the Race Against Resistance – Read Their Top Ten Reasons
Life-threatening infections caused by antimicrobial resistant organisms, commonly referred to as ‘superbugs’ have taken the media by storm. MRSA, VRE, MDRO, KPC, CRE, CDI – all acronyms that put fear in our hearts that one day, we will have run out of treatment options. That one day, our patients will die from infections that we […]
Jun 1, 2019
When you see CRE: Add Equal Parts Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Control
The following was previously posted by Dr. Marcelin to SHEA Journal Club published online in April 2019. Dealing with carbapenem resistant organisms presents both an antimicrobial stewardship and infection control problem. Richter et al. aimed to predict risk factors for carbapenem resistance among Gram-negative rods (CR-GNR). The authors were particularly interested in whether differences exist […]
May 2, 2019
At the end of 2018, we remember and respect Influenza, 100 years after the great pandemic
The Mother of All Pandemics In the 1918-1919 calendar year, the world experienced the worst influenza pandemic in modern times. Coming on the heels of WWI, the H1N1 pandemic occurred in three waves – in the spring of 1918, fall 1918 and spring 1919. Estimates suggest that the pandemic infected a third of the world’s […]
Dec 26, 2018
Does the Clostridium Smell Diffy? Even the Dogs Disagree…
The C. difficile sniffing dogs are back! There are several prior reports of individual dogs being trained to “sniff out” C. difficile. In a novel approach, the authors of this study trained two dogs simultaneously, and then compared interrater reliability between sniff attempts. They used toxigenic C. difficile frozen stool samples (GDH EIA and PCR […]
Nov 5, 2018
IDWeek 2018: Why We Still Don’t Wash Our Hands
At IDWeek 2018, the annual conference for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, I was struck by one simple truth. We are still talking about washing our hands, or in our professional lingo, hand hygiene. Hand hygiene is the simplest, most effective way to prevent infection. Most of us know this intuitively, without the science, […]
Oct 30, 2018
Intensive Infection Control experience for UNMC ID Fellows
The Nebraska Medicine Infection Control and Epidemiology Department (IC&E) is well recognized for excellence. The department is staffed by 5 full-time Infection Preventionists (IP), a data analyst, and a staff assistant; Terry Michaels, manages the department. Dr. Rupp serves as the Medical Director and is assisted by Drs. Ashraf, Cawcutt, Marcelin, and VanSchooneveld as Associate […]
Oct 1, 2018
Tune into this AMAZING Podcast : The Hot Zone: Biocontainment with Dr. Hewlett
Dr. Angela Hewlett recently was interviewed via podcast for a Travel Medicine show regarding biocontainment, including how to treat and handle highly infectious agents(yes, including Ebola). The blog posts include everything from what biocontainment is to worse case scenarios and other unique aspects of preparing for, and providing care for, people with these types […]
May 9, 2018
UNMCID is excited to participate in #SHEA2018 this week from April 18-20 in Portland, OR. This is going to be an exciting conference this year, featuring “Education on Innovative Topics Addressing Unanswered Issues in Healthcare Epidemiology, Antibiotic Stewardship, and Post-Acute & Long-Term Care“. We want to be sure YOU know where to find us in […]
Apr 17, 2018
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