With this blog I am leaving my beaten path: neonatal sepsis and probiotics. But so does this double-blind placebo-controlled study published today in Nature. To me, probiotics are still “something promising since 25 years”, without ever having substantiated that promise (like Ajax and the Chicago Cubs, until recently). In fact, colleagues of mine once led a study in which probiotics apparently killed patients with acute pancreatitis. This new study may change my view completely.
Infection Prevention and Control
Dead bacteria cannot mutate
As a young and angry PhD student I was confronted with the concept of Selective Digestive Decontamination (SDD). That was in the early nineties (previous millennium). Coming from the field of microbiology I expected that SDD would increase antibiotic resistance. It were intensivists that told me not to worry: “antibiotics in SDD kill bacteria and dead bacteria cannot mutate”. They may have been right, suggests a new study. Continue reading
The Extended Study on Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care (EPIC III)
On the World Sepsis Day, September 13, 2017, The Extended Study on Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care (EPIC III) will be performed. EPIC III is a 24-hour point-prevalence study that will collect data on demographics, infection management, degree of organ dysfunction and patient outcomes in ICUs around the world. The EPIC study was performed in 1992 and EPIC II in 2007. Every ICU can join the project and participation will provide a nice opportunity for data comparison between ICUs, countries and continents.
EPIC III will be observational and non-interventional, and patient data will be anonymous. Data collection will be limited to simple variables that are easy to collect and routinely recorded. Data will be recorded using electronic case report forms (eCRF) (paper versions can be provided if online access is problematic or not available). In each country a coordinating center has obtained ethical approval fort he study, and participation will, therefore, only require informing your ethical committee according to local requirements.
The first EPIC study (the E stood for European) was performed in 1,417 ICUs in 17 countries in Western Europe that enrolled 10,038 patients. The EPIC II study (with the E from Extended) had 13,796 adult patients in 1,265 participating ICUs from 75 countries on the study day. Interested? Contact the study team at this page.
Agent Orange in spinal surgery
This week I learned from an orthopaedic surgeon that randomized trials were something that could be of use in “pharmaceutical sciences”, but that it is well-known that in the “surgical science” retrospective analyses are better for deriving evidence. We came to this when discussing the benefits of powdered vancomycin in the wounds of spinal surgery. Apparently this is something “all spinal orthopaedics do”, because it works so good. Continue reading
Exposed: Dutch clinical microbiologists
Exposed; that’s what we are. We, Dutch clinical microbiologists. Globally acknowledged for our capacity to control antibiotic resistance, prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and practice the most rational and restrictive antibiotic policies. That we are self-confident, loud and arrogant is taken for granted, as most do with Christiano Ronaldo. But it is with great sadness that I have to announce that it was all FAKE. The balloon was pricked by professor Marcel Levi. Continue reading
Real-time whole genome sequencing (RT-WGS) & spread of resistant bacteria
At last weeks’ ICPIC I crossed arguments with John Rossen on the question whether RT-WGS helps us to control the spread of resistant bacteria. The setting is the hospital and the definition of RT is “in time to guide essential decision making”. Is RT-WGS a “need-to-have” or a “nice-to-have” thing? Continue reading
The rocket-science of a CPE screen & isolate policy
Last weeks’ blog from Jon Otter on the practice of CPE screening and isolation raised some interesting comments (on twitter) emphasizing the difficulties in policy making for infection control. The two comments that struck me were: (1) … screening for CPE sounds logical “but does it work in long-term care facilities with high-levels of endemicity?” And “I use it in my hospital, but face difficulties in convincing others because of lacking scientific evidence for CPE.” Continue reading
WHO IPC Core Components
While I had seen the WHO IPC Core Components, I have totally missed the great video they made. Thus, with no further comment, here the link to this well-made video.
Just in case that the link via the picture doesn’t work, copy and paste the following link into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZapz2L6J1Q&feature=youtu.be
Candida auris part III. Are you prepared?
MMWR just published on the ongoing transmission of Candida auris in the US, while at the same time PLOS Pathogens came with an excellent review on the topic.
By now I had the debatable pleasure to be around for the birth of a few “superbugs”, but this one is clearly putting a lot of effort into reaching the top of the list. I believe (classical pessimist) that many institutions still ignore this new adversary (or are even unaware), and most certainly have no game-plan to prevent its introduction and consequent spread. In the MMWR publication the current recommendations for C. auris–colonized or infected patients were repeated, with only one change from previous recommendations, namely that a more effective (sporicidal) disinfectant is needed, but I seriously wonder who follows this guidance.
Thus, here it comes, another 30-seconds-questionaire. Why? Because I hope that you will prove me wrong and that we – the infection control people at the frontline – act on threat, instead of re-act once we are overrun.
Link to questions https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QCK9RWS
References
Notes from the Field: Ongoing Transmission of Candida auris in Health Care Facilities — United States, June 2016–May 2017. Weekly / May 19, 2017 / 66(19);514–515 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6619a7.htm?s_cid=mm6619a7_e
Chowdhary A, Sharma C, Meis J. Candida auris: A rapidly emerging cause of hospital-acquired multidrug-resistant fungal infections globally. PLOS Pathogens https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006290 May 18, 2017
Fluoroquinolone use and C. difficile infections: The English miracle not yet explained?
A few weeks ago in LID this marvellous paper, clearly demonstrated the reduction of fluoroquinolone-resistant but not fluoroquinolone-susceptible C. diff infections (CDI) in English hospitals, coined as “the English C. diff miracle”. The CDI decline coincided with the reduction of fluoroquinolone use, but also with a period in which “horizontal” infection control measures, such as hand hygiene, were improved. As the latter would be equally effective in preventing transmission of resistant and susceptible strains, the fluoroquinolone reduction was considered causative for the observed reduction. A very simple model tells us that that is not necessarily the case. Continue reading
Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control 