PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Cases of drug-resistant superbug significantly rise in southeastern US

2014-07-16
(Press-News.org) CHICAGO (July 16, 2014) – Cases of the highly contagious, drug-resistant bacteria, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), have increased fivefold in community hospitals in the Southeastern United States, according to a new study published in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

"This dangerous bacteria is finding its way into healthcare facilities nationwide. Even this marked increase likely underestimates the true scope of the problem given variations in hospital surveillance practices," said Joshua Thaden, MD, a lead author of the study. "A CRE epidemic is fast approaching. We must take immediate and significant action in order to limit the transmission of these dangerous pathogens throughout our hospitals and acute care facilities."

CRE are a class of highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are not susceptible to most commonly-used antibiotics. Labeled "one of the three greatest threats to human health" by the World Health Organization, these dangerous pathogens can cause infections in the urinary tract, lungs, blood, and other areas. Patients with CRE infections have high risk of mortality, with at least 48 percent of cases proving fatal.

Over the five-year study period, researchers identified 305 unique patients with CRE through the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON), a cluster of 25 community hospitals in the Southeastern U.S. In this retrospective cohort, infection prevention professionals identified cases via prospective surveillance using standardized protocols in all hospitals. However, the majority of microbiology laboratories in the study had not adopted the most recent, and more sensitive, guidelines for detecting the bacteria. In hospitals that had adopted the guidelines, the rate of CRE detection was more than three times higher.

Half of the patients with CRE were symptomatic (59 percent) and nearly all cases were healthcare-associated (60 percent community-onset, healthcare-associated, 34 percent hospital onset). The higher rate of infection was found to stem from a combination of factors, including: Increased use of broad-spectrum antibiotics; Ease of which CRE enzymes could be transmitted among bacteria; and Increased transmission between long-term acute care facilities and community hospitals.

"This is a wake up call for community hospitals. More must be done to prepare and respond to CRE, specifically infection control to limit person-to-person transmission and improved laboratory detection," said Thaden.

In a commentary accompanying the study, Christopher Pfeiffer, MD, noted increased financial and staffing shortages as two challenges community hospitals faced in trying to prevent transmission of the superbug. Pfeiffer offered, "CRE prevention and control could benefit from regional collaborative networks armed with knowledge and resources to assist individual facilities and coordinate between facilities, which have been successful in the control of other antibiotic-resistant bacteria."

In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a CRE toolkit to help protect patients and prevent transmission.The toolkit is available at http://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/cre/cre-toolkit.

INFORMATION: Joshua Thaden, Sarah Lewis, Kevin Hazen, Kirk Huslage, Vance Fowler Jr, Rebekah Moehring, Luke Chen, Constance Jones, Zack Moore, Daniel Sexton, Deverick Anderson. "Rising Rates of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae in Community Hospitals: A Mixed-Methods Review of Epidemiology and Microbiology Practices in a Network of Community Hospitals in the Southeastern United States." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology [35:8] (August 2014).

Christopher D. Pfeiffer, Zintars G. Beldavs. "Much to Do about Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae: Why Supplementing Surveillance May Be the Key to Stopping Spread." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology [35:8] (August 2014).

Published through a partnership between the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and The University of Chicago Press, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology provides original, peer-reviewed scientific articles for anyone involved with an infection control or epidemiology program in a hospital or healthcare facility. ICHE is ranked 13 out of 158 journals in its discipline in the latest Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters.

SHEA is a professional society representing more than 2,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals globally with expertise in and passion for healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society promotes science and research, develops expert guidelines and guidance for healthcare workers, provides high-quality education, promotes antimicrobial stewardship, encourages transparency in public reporting related to HAIs, works to ensure a safe healthcare environment, and facilitates the exchange of knowledge. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings. Visit SHEA online at http://www.shea-online.org, http://www.facebook.com/SHEApreventingHAIs and @SHEA_Epi.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Making a mental match: Pairing a mechanical device with stroke patients

Making a mental match: Pairing a mechanical device with stroke patients
2014-07-16
The repetitive facilitation exercise (RFE) is one of the most common rehabilitation tactics for stroke patients attempting to regain wrist movement. Stroke hemiparesis individuals are not able to move that part of their body because they cannot create a strong enough neural signal that travels from the brain to the wrist. With RFE, however, patients get a mental boost. They are asked to think about moving. At the same time, a practitioner flexes the wrist. The goal is to send a long latency response from the stretch that arrives in the brain at the exact time the thought ...

Poor sleep quality linked to lower physical activity in people with PTSD

2014-07-16
DARIEN, IL – A new study shows that worse sleep quality predicts lower physical activity in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results show that PTSD was independently associated with worse sleep quality at baseline, and participants with current PTSD at baseline had lower physical activity one year later. Further analysis found that sleep quality completely mediated the relationship between baseline PTSD status and physical activity at the one-year follow-up, providing preliminary evidence that the association of reduced sleep quality with reduced physical ...

MedDiet has varied effects on cognitive decline among different races -- Ben-Gurion University researcher

2014-07-16
BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL July 16, 2014... While the Mediterranean diet may have broad health benefits, its impact on cognitive decline differs among race-specific populations, according to a new study published in the Journal of Gerontology. The team of researchers, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU Prof. Danit R. Shahar RD, Ph.D, analyzed an NIH/NIA prospective cohort study [Health ABC] conducted over eight years in the U.S. to measure the effects of adherence to a Mediterranean diet. Prof. Shahar is affiliated with the BGU S. Daniel Abraham International Center ...

Chinese researchers describe impaired self-face recognition in those with major depressive disorder

Chinese researchers describe impaired self-face recognition in those with major depressive disorder
2014-07-16
Neuropsychological impairment has long been established as a fundamental characteristic of depression, but a specific pattern of impairment that is widely recognized has not been summarized. Professor Jia Hongxiao and his group from the Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, explore major depressive disorder (MDD) from the perspective of neuropsychology. They found that the self-serving bias and self-recognition bias were impaired in individuals suffering from MDD compared with a control group. This research lays the groundwork for further study on the etiology ...

People in leadership positions may sacrifice privacy for security

2014-07-16
People with higher job status may be more willing to compromise privacy for security reasons and also be more determined to carry out those decisions, according to researchers. This preoccupation with security may shape policy and decision-making in areas ranging from terrorism to investing, and perhaps cloud other options, said Jens Grossklags, assistant professor of information sciences and technology, Penn State. "What may get lost in the decision-making process is that one can enhance security without the negative impact on privacy," said Grossklags. "It's more ...

Promising medication counteracts constipation caused by opioid painkillers

2014-07-16
Opioids – strong morphine-based painkillers – are widely prescribed to patients experiencing chronic severe pain. While these drugs are very effective for treating and managing pain, they have one particularly bothersome side effect: constipation. A new drug, called naloxegol, could bring relief. In stage 3 trials reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, KU Leuven and international researchers provide new evidence that the drug relieves constipation without dulling opioids' pain-relieving effects. Up until a decade ago, physicians rarely prescribed opioids, reserving ...

Bubble wrap serves as sheet of tiny test tubes in resource-limited regions

2014-07-16
Popping the blisters on the bubble wrap might be the most enjoyable thing about moving. But now, scientists propose a more productive way to reuse the popular packing material — as a sheet of small, test tube-like containers for medical and environmental samples. Their report, which shows that analyses can take place right in the bubbles, appears in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry. George Whitesides and colleagues explain that although bubble wrap filled with biological samples, like blood or urine, or chemicals would have to be handled carefully, the material offers ...

NIH turns to crowdsourcing to repurpose drugs

NIH turns to crowdsourcing to repurpose drugs
2014-07-16
New Rochelle, NY, July 16, 2014–Experimental drugs proven safe but perhaps not sufficiently effective in initial testing or against a first disease target may sit gathering dust on the shelves of pharmaceutical companies. An NIH-sponsored effort based on a crowdsourcing strategy to establish collaborations between industrial and academic partners to test and develop these therapeutic compounds was met with an overwhelming response and has led to clinical testing of a broad range of pilot projects and a newly announced round of funding opportunities. These findings are described ...

What do Google searches tell us about our climate change fears?

2014-07-16
Republicans search the Net for information about the weather, climate change and global warming during extremely hot or cold spells. Democrats Google these terms when they experience changes in the average temperatures. These are some of the surprising findings from a study by Corey Lang of the University of Rhode Island in the US, published in Springer's journal Climatic Change. He tracked how the temperature fluctuations and rainfall that Americans experience daily in their own cities make them scour the Internet in search of information about climate change and global ...

An anti-glare, anti-reflective display for mobile devices?

2014-07-16
If you've ever tried to watch a video on a tablet on a sunny day, you know you have to tilt it at just the right angle to get rid of glare or invest in a special filter. But now scientists are reporting in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that they've developed a novel glass surface that reduces both glare and reflection, which continue to plague even the best mobile displays today. Valerio Pruneri and colleagues note that much effort has been poured into anti-reflective and anti-glare technology. In the highly competitive digital age, any bonus feature ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

‘Molecular shield’ placed in the nose may soon treat common hay fever trigger

Beetles under climate stress lay larger male eggs: Wolbachia infection drives adaptive reproduction strategy in response to rising temperature and CO₂

Groundbreaking quantum study puts wave-particle duality to work

Weekly injection could be life changing for Parkinson’s patients

Toxic metals linked to impaired growth in infants in Guatemala

Being consistently physically active in adulthood linked to 30–40% lower risk of death

Nerve pain drug gabapentin linked to increased dementia, cognitive impairment risks

Children’s social care involvement common to nearly third of UK mums who died during perinatal period

‘Support, not judgement’: Study explores links between children’s social care involvement and maternal deaths

Ethnic minority and poorer children more likely to die in intensive care

Major progress in fertility preservation after treatment for cancer of the lymphatic system

Fewer complications after additional ultrasound in pregnant women who feel less fetal movement

Environmental impact of common pesticides seriously underestimated

The Milky Way could be teeming with more satellite galaxies than previously thought

New study reveals surprising reproductive secrets of a cricket-hunting parasitoid fly

Media Tip Sheet: Symposia at ESA2025

NSF CAREER Award will power UVA engineer’s research to improve drug purification

Tiny parasitoid flies show how early-life competition shapes adult success

New coating for glass promises energy-saving windows

Green spaces boost children’s cognitive skills and strengthen family well-being

Ancient trees dying faster than expected in Eastern Oregon

Study findings help hone precision of proven CVD risk tool

Most patients with advanced melanoma who received pre-surgical immunotherapy remain alive and disease free four years later

Introducing BioEmu: A generative AI Model that enables high-speed and accurate prediction of protein structural ensembles

Replacing mutated microglia with healthy microglia halts progression of genetic neurological disease in mice and humans

New research shows how tropical plants manage rival insect tenants by giving them separate ‘flats’

Condo-style living helps keep the peace inside these ant plants

Climate change action could dramatically limit rising UK heatwave deaths

Annual heat-related deaths projected to increase significantly due to climate and population change

Researchers discover new way cells protect themselves from damage

[Press-News.org] Cases of drug-resistant superbug significantly rise in southeastern US