Infectious Disease Update
Our Infectious Disease Update provides you with relevant educational and timely news affecting laboratory medicine.
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Volume 16, no. 6Featured in this Issue:
- Rocky Mountain spotted fever: An overview
- Another Salmonella outbreak!
- Chlorhexidine sponges in dressings reduces catheter-related infections
- The use of the QuantiFERON®–TB Gold test for following treatment of l latent TB
- A comparison of the QuantiFERON®–TB Gold test with the tuberculin skin test
- Cell phones as a source of nosocomial infections
- Is repeat testing for Clostridium difficile of value?
- Pandemic influenza planning and prevention gets a big boost!
- A "quadrivalent" flu vaccine being discussed
- Breaking through Clostridium difficile's suit of armor!
- Treatment of Clostridium difficile infections: We've been looking in the wrong place!
- Disinfection for Clostridium difficile
- New Tests from Quest Diagnostics
- HIV-1 RNA, Qualitative TMA
- Rubella Virus RNA, Qualitative
- Real-Time PCR
Featured in this Issue:
- An overview of the genus Streptococcus
- MRSA infections - not all doom and gloom
- Corticosteroid inhalers and pneumonia
- Helping antibiotics do their job!
- Treating children with secretory otitis media
- Vitamin D plays important role in upper respiratory tract infections
- The quest for a better influenza vaccine
- DNA versus RNA viruses
- Hepatitis E virus
- Antimicrobial level, Pyrazinamide, HPLC
- Clostridium difficile DNA and toxin B gene, qualitative, real-time PCR
- Epstein-Barr virus, ISH with interpretation
- Herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2, IHC with interpretation
- HIV-1 RNA, quantitative real-time PCR, CSF
New tests from Quest Diagnostics:
Featured in this Issue:
- Human metapneumovirus infections – an overview
- MRSA among pigs and workers
- New class of antibiotics found
- Free antibiotics at the grocery store?
- Immunizing against measles. Does it work?
- The “Superbugs” – running out of options?
- Influenza and dry air in the winter
- Vaccines and autism – there is no evidence
- A new Streptococcus emerging?
- U.S. Government gets first shipment of new anthrax drug
- Do face masks stop respiratory tract infections?
- Several States may pass MRSA screening laws
- What is Sphingomonas?
- Re-testing of C. difficile-infected patients after treatment
- Shedding of Norovirus particles after infection
- BK Virus, DNA, Qualitative Real- Time PCR, Urine
- BK Virus, DNA, Quantitative Real-Time PCR, Urine
New tests from Quest Diagnostics:
Featured in this Issue:
- Rat bite fever: an overview
- Water quality: in a Pakistani hospital
- Not ready for pandemic influenza: according to report from Homeland Security Committee of Congress
- Influenza immunization rates: among the elderly
- Influenza immunization rates: among employees of Connecticut long-term care facilities
- Pneumovax for smokers: now recommended by CDC
- Anti-influenza drugs: two new ones being studied
- Healthcare-associated pneumonias: more severe than community-acquired ones
- Healthcare-acquired infections: Federal government roles out plan to prevent them
- Human metapneumovirus: no longer just among children
- BK virus: and prostate cancer
- MRSA on stethoscopes: of emergency medical personnel
- Bocavirus: a new one found
- Human metapneumovirus, FDA
- Fungal identification, phenotypic and sequencing
- Fungal sequencing, ITS region
New tests from Quest Diagnostics:
Featured in this Issue:
- Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) — an overview
- Surgical scrubs outside surgery
- More alcohol hand sanitizer means less MRSA!
- Cutting the size of an influenza vaccine dose
- Promising vaccines for malaria
- A new class of antibiotics that "hugs" ribosomes
- The economic "down turn" leads to an "up turn" for infections
- An unusual sore throat
- How long does immunity towards smallpox last?
- Health and Human Services releases guideline for use and stockpiling of antiviral drugs for pandemic influenza
- The risks associated with personal hygiene products
- Coxiella burnetti DNA, qualitative real-time PCR
- Treponema pallidum DNA, qualitative real-time PCR
New tests from Quest Diagnostics:
Featured in this Issue:
- Dengue Fever: An overview
- CDC releases new guidelines for disinfection and sterilization in healthcare facilities
- Screening for single pathogens in facilities may not be worth it!
- How does bleach kill bacteria?
- Clostridium difficile survey released
- An intranasal TB vaccine may be feasible
- Faster detection of enterococci leads to better treatment
- Bacteria on your hands: men versus women
- Quest Diagnostics study documents impact of Rotavirus immunization on incidence of disease
- Can the rotavirus vaccine be given with other infant vaccines?
- Salmonella in pet food
- CDC issues recommendations for managing chronic Hepatitis B infections
- KPC-producing microorganisms
- Chlamydia trachomatis and eisseria gonorrhoeae RNA by TMA in throat and rectal swabs
New tests from Quest Diagnostics:
Featured in this Issue:
- Sister Bernadette Washy, Quest Diagnostics employee, honored for service
- Malaria – An overview
- On the ground in Tanzania: protecting the population against malaria
- Community-acquired Clostridium difficile infections in absence of antibiotics
- Acinetobacter baumannii among war wounded
- Norovirus may be the most infectious virus ever studied
- How to reduce treating asymptomatic bacteriuria in long-term care
- MRSA is a major cause of vulvar abscesses
- CDC launches National MRSA Educational Initiative
- How long are noroviruses shed after infection?
- Can norovirus infections be fatal?
- Pneumococcal immunization may lower the risk of heart attack
- Screening for HPV infections in men
Featured in this Issue:
- Unusual microorganisms, Part IV – Francisella tularensis
- Unusual microorganisms, Part IV – Tatumella ptyseos
- Measles rate reaches its highest in 12 years
- Federal government changes payment rules for hospital-acquired infections
- What is the burden of hospitalacquired infections?
- 90 Years after the 1918 Flu Pandemic!
- The use of corticosteroids in treating infectious diseases
- Clostridium difficile and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)
- New alcohol-based hand sanitizer effective against norovirus
- Chikungunya antibodies with reflexes to titer (includes IgG and IgM)
- Enterovirus/Parechovirus RNA, qualitative, Real-time PCR
- Mumps virus RNA, qualitative, Real-time PCR
New tests from Quest Diagnostics:
Featured in this Issue:
- Unusual microorganisms – Part III: Klebsiella rhinoscleromatis
- Unusual microorganisms – Part III: Pantoea agglomerans
- Name of "infection control practioners" is changed!
- Leprosy in Mississippi reported
- Heavy alcohol consumption and infections in the ICU
- Most nursing homes have no plan for pandemic influenza
- Are anaerobic blood cultures necessary?
- Cranberry juice really does prevent bacterial attachment to uroepithelial cells lining the bladder5
- The cost of post-operative infections
- HPV infections among men
- How well does the flu vaccine protect the elderly?
- "Priming" may improve response to avian influenza vaccine
- Janthinobacterium: what is it?
- Sapoviruses: what are they?
Featured in this Issue:
- Patients and physicians to share diagnostic test results on-line with launch of Google Health
- Unusual Microorganisms Part II — Plesiomonas shigelloides
- Unusual Microorganisms Part II — Aeromonas hydrophila
- Invasive streptococcal infections in long-term care facilities
- Number of Clostridium difficile infections in hospitals doubles between 2000 and 2005
- Antipsychotic medications and pneumonia in the elderly
- China takes steps to combat Kaschin-Beck disease
- Honey used to eradicate microorganisms on the skin
- Pandemic influenza ("avian influenza") — out of mind but not out of existence!
Featured in this issue:
- Correction: article on shigellosis in May issue
- Stenotrophomonas maltophilia: an overview
- Staphylococcus lugdunensis: an overview
- Clostridium difficile deaths: in the U.K.
- Corynebacterium ulcerans: and human disease
- MRSA: value of screening for carriers
- MRSA: from cats?
- Staphylococcus aureus: why they are able to survive in the nares
- TB rate: U.S. rate the lowest ever!
- Reducing hospital infections: Congressional report critical of country's efforts
- Urinary tract infections: fighting with E. coli
- Chaga's disease: what is it?
- Horses: diseases from
- New lab tests: available from Quest Diagnostics
Featured in this issue:
- Genus Shigella: an overview
- Influenza immunization in long-term care facilities: Connecticut 2007-2008
- MRSA strains from animals: increased in the Netherlands
- Daptomycin versus vancomycin: for treating MRSA infections
- TB: untreated latent cases in the U.S.
- Multidrug-resistant TB: reaches new world high
- Pneumococcal vaccine: use greatly reduces disease in children
- New infectious diseases: where do they come from?
- New flu vaccine: for the elderly
- Malaria: it can be beaten!
Featured in this Issue:
- Adenovirus Infections: an overview
- Vaccination among adults: CDC is concerned
- Influenza antivirals: effective even when given late
- Live attenuated influenza vaccine: debunking myths
- Diarrhea: is your computer the culprit?
- MRSA Infections: prevalence in U.S. hospitals
- Clostridium difficile Infections: cost to U.S. Hospitals
- Influenza A: ordinary strains may becoming resistant to oseltamivir
- Bacterial colonization in newborns: may play a role in asthma
- Alcohol-based hand sanitizers: may not be the answer
- Influenza A: becoming resistant to oseltamivir
- Clostridium difficile: cases cause more cases
- Chikungunya virus: Focus Diagnostics develops first blood test
Featured in this Issue:
- Hand-foot-and-mouth disease: an overview
- Alcohol hand sanitizers: disappearing from facilities?
- Influenza immunization programs: how to increase participation
- Treating avian influenza cases: WHO issues new guidelines
- Avian influenza: one case of spread identified in a family
- Recent respiratory infections: effect on risk for myocardial infarct and stroke
- Childhood multiple sclerosis: hepatitis B vaccine shown not to be linked
- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: new strain spread among homosexual men
- Dengue fever: may spread in U.S.
Featured in this Issue:
- Mycoplasma pneumoniae: An overview
- How prevalent is MRSA in US healthcare facilities?
- Do immunizations work?
- How to increase influenza immunization participation
- Using bacteriophage lysins to kill MRSA
- Why does influenza spread mostly in the winter?
- Reducing catheter-associated urinary tract infections
- New Jersey to require influenza immunizations for children
- Staphylococcus intestinal colonization
- Many medical residents lack knowledge concerning TB symptoms
- How long have bacteria been around?
- How accurate is the "rapid" test for influenza?
Featured in this Issue:
- Septicemias: An overview
- Cleansing with chlorhexidine reduces bloodstream infections
- Chlorhexidine and catheter-related infections
- Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus may attack white blood cells
- New variant of adenovirus serotype 14 emerging in U.S.
- United Kingdom to take hard stand on hospital-acquired infections
- How many patients does MRSA kill in the U.S.?
- Methamphetamine use and MRSA infections
- MRSA from animals?
- Using nitrofurantoin for UTIs
- New test being investigated for detecting Clostridium difficile
- New Test available from Quest Diagnostics
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