Personal Protective Equipment

Infectious disease experts say we are on the brink of losing our last line of defense against pathogenic microorganisms -- antibiotics and other antimicrobials -- unless the healthcare industry and policy-makers significantly improve efforts to preserve these drugs' effectiveness through antimicrobial stewardship initiatives.

Capitalizing on the momentum created by a 2010 conference, a new consensus statement released this spring focuses on the future of the prevention of needlesticks and other sharps-related injuries and creates a road map for achieving improved occupational health and safety among healthcare workers.

Today on Medscape, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) experts Drs. Raymund Dante and Alice Guh provide step-by-step guidance for healthcare professionals that can help protect their patients by preventing the transmission of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in their facilities. CRE are resistant to almost all drugs and can contribute to death in 40 percent of patients who become infected. Not only are these organisms associated with high mortality rates, but they have the potential to spread quickly.

Each year, approximately 5 percent to 20 percent of Americans get infected with the influenza virus. With more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year for flu-related complications, it is a wonder that less than 50 percent of eligible citizens take preventive action by getting a flu shot (CDC, 2011b). Vaccination rates have been shown to vary greatly between age groups and demographics, but one particularly interesting cohort to examine is that of healthcare workers.

Ensuring healthcare worker compliance with the proper use of respiratory protection when it is warranted remains a challenge for infection preventionists and is a continued area of study by researchers in the public and private sectors. One such agency pursuing this knowledge is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the federal agency specifically dedicated to generating new knowledge in the field of occupational safety and health and to transferring that knowledge into practice.