This month’s Roundup, as ever freely available on the Journal of Hospital Infection website, showcases some of the useful data emerging from the field of the ongoing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. For example, emerging data suggests that the R₀ (basic reproductive number) of Ebola is around 2, meaning that two transmissions will occur from every case. This means that Ebola is not massively transmissible compared with other infectious diseases – but this hasn’t stopped it increasing more or less exponentially in parts of West Africa!

Some interesting studies on the increasing or decreasing prevalence of MDROs are also covered in the Roundup. For example, one study reported a worrying doubling of the rate of CDI in the USA, whereas another study reports impressive reductions in S. aureus bacteraemia in Australia.

The Roundup includes a brief overview of the Infection Prevention 2014 conference, covered in more detail in a previous post in this blog, and finally, features Catherine Makison-Booth’s brilliant Vomiting Larry (pictured below)!

As ever, I’d be delighted to receive your feedback as to how the Roundup should evolve.