Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 8th FIDSSA Congress in Johannesburg (Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of Southern Africa). I was invited to talk on infection control in the Netherlands, SDD and empiric antibiotic strategies in ICU. I never felt more distance between my habitat and that of my hosts. It surpassed the 3732 miles in the air. I learned a lot; from how it is to go into military conflict areas to identify Ebola cases, fighting a cholera outbreak after a tropical cyclone in Mozambique to the infinite trio, which stands for carbapenem resistant Klebsiella, Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter. Continue reading
Meetings
The winner takes it all for S. aureus
As usual, some of the most interesting presentations at ECCMID were in the late-breakers “clinical trials” session. Four of 5 presentations were on treatment or prevention of S. aureus infection, the other one on oral treatment in patients with refractory fungal disease. With all respect to fungi, the meat was in the aureus, with nothing less than a Shakespearian tragedy. Continue reading
The continuous need of outcome data of continuous beta-lactam infusion (or not?)
When I received this invitation for a PRO-CON, I accepted within 1 minute. Only later to realize that it was on “Optimised dosing according to PK/PD principles in patients – does it improve the efficacy of antibiotics?” Luckily I was given the CON, but I was in a poor position upfront: In a twitter poll 93% of voters were PRO (bias not excluded) and my opponent was Jason Roberts. So, this was my line of reasoning: Continue reading
Reflections IPC pre-ECCMID event
“How do we communicate our scientific results, beliefs and doubts to our peers, policy makers and the lay men?”
Posting blogs on Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control is a possibility. For the occasion of the ECCMID 2019 meeting in Amsterdam, the “Reflections on IPC blog team” and UMCU PhD students invite you to this pre-ECCMID event, on the Friday before ECCMID (April 12th) in Amsterdam.
We have a high-quality entertaining program and hope to meet you in a most pleasant atmosphere. Jop de Vrieze is a prominent Dutch science journalist with a great interest in infectious diseases. He writes for Science, de Groene Amsterdammer and Volkskrant, to name a few. Miquel Ekkelenkamp is a clinical microbiologist with a PhD in day-time, but at night he writes (real) novels and razor-sharp columns. Muge Cevik is an infectious diseases registrar from the United Kingdom, who worked on an analysis of all the tweets sent during the ECCMID 2018 conference in Madrid. Martin Kiernan, a Visiting Clinical Fellow at the Richard Wells Research Centre of the University of West London and distinguished IPC blog writer will present the top 10 reflections on IPC. And Rinze Benedictus from the UMC Utrecht will end the program with explaining the concepts of Science in Transition, an international movement to change several aspects of the current academic system, such as the pressure to publish as much as possible in journals with high impact factors, and where that all can lead to.
Now, since this all happens in the Netherlands we must obey to Dutch rules. One of them is that you need to sign up and pay €25,– AIOS/PhD and €45,–. for medical specialists. This is an evidence-based intervention to reduce the “no-show rate” from 80% (with free entrance) to at most 10%, and to prevent us ending the evening with loads of uneaten “bitterballen”. We can host about 70 guests!
Venue: Cafe Weesper, Weesperzijde 144, Amsterdam
18.00-19.00 Wellcome
19.00-19.20 Jop de Vrieze: Science and communication
19.20-19.40 Miquel Ekkelenkamp: the art of science
19.40-20.00 Muge Cevik: Science in tweets
20.00-20.30 Break with Dutch cuisine and drinks
20.30-20.50 Martin Kiernan: The Top Ten Reflections on IPC
20.50-21.15 Rinze Bendictus: Science in Transition
Happy gathering. Hope to see you there.
You can sign in here: https://webshop.umcutrecht.nl/umcutrecht/nl/Products.aspx
ICPIC 2015
Sorry, this was the attempt of a mobile upload straight from the meeting. Here a cleaned version, actually including the picture. I promise, I will not continue (for now) to promote ICPIC via this blog. I do so via Twitter (@avipnl), but someone just presented a nice slide expressing the fact that you want a lot (too much) from one thing – in this case disinfection wipes.
“Wipes are like an egg-laying, milk-giving, wolly pig!”
EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE – RELATED ACTIVITIES AT ICPIC 2015
Sorry, as part of the ICPIC organizers, I can’t stop myself to post this.
At ICPIC 2015, there will be a large number of activities related to Ebola virus disease (EVD). Due to the unique experience of field workers and scientific experts present at ICPIC 2015, and considering the large demand, the organizers and scientific committee members are glad to inform ICPIC participants about the many activities around EVD that will take place during ICPIC 2015.
Ebola virus disease will be addressed:
- at the pre-ICPIC workshop “Ebola: Hands On” on Tuesday 16 June (10:00 to 16:50) in the presence of more than 30 field experts and faculties. The “Ebola: Hands On” workshop is free for ICPIC participants
- at the Opening Ceremony
- during ICPIC at MTE, symposium, poster and poster rounds sessions
We are convinced that ICPIC participants will get the best insight and advice on Ebola virus disease out of these activities.
For those interested in Ebola I might add that ARIC just published “Preparedness of institutions around the world for managing patients with Ebola virus disease: an infection control readiness checklist” a first project of the newly establish ISC working group on infection prevention and control.
ICPIC 2015
Join us in Geneva from 16 to 19 June 2015!
The ICPIC programme has now been finalized and is available via the ICPIC website.
Click here to discover the detailed programme.
The committee has invited key opinion leaders in the field, who will address a full range of topics in prevention and infection control. Do not miss this opportunity to meet and network with top experts in your field!
Highlights of the programme
- Ebola hands-on workshop on Tuesday 16 June 2015
- Innovation Academy on Wednesday 17 and Friday 19 June
- Implementation Academy on Wednesday 17 June
- PIC Talks on Wednesday 17 June
- Keynote lecture on CLABSI – view from the past to the future
- Meet the Expert interactive sessions in a wide range of topics
Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control 