Hospitals that have reduced tuberculosis screening for health care workers should remain vigilant for disease introductions and take heed of the following cautionary tale. In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines that advised health care facilities…
Compliance with respirator use for the next emerging airborne infection or pandemic would likely improve if health care workers could literally breathe easier. A better respirator designed specifically for health care workers is on the horizon. Manufacturers are working with…
Health care workers may be suffering in silence from work-related dermatitis, much of it linked to frequent hand washing. Cases of work-related dermatitis are about 100 times greater than the rate reflected in federal data, and health care workers are…
The toughest flu vaccine mandate in the country faces a legal challenge from the nation’s largest union representing health care workers. The Rhode Island Department of Health issued a rule in October 2012 that requires all health care workers who…
Influenza transmission is beginning early for the 2012-2013 season, but the vaccine appears to be strong match with about 90% of circulating virus, said Thomas Frieden, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This year’s strains…
Flexibility will be the guiding principle in upcoming recommendations on health care workers who were vaccinated against hepatitis B as infants. Instead of directing hospitals to test all young health care workers for antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen, the…
You may have heard or read that a 49-year-old man from the nation of Qatar on the Arabian Peninsula was transferred to a London hospital by air ambulance, the second person confirmed with a new SARS-like coronavirus. The first case was…
As the nation faces the largest outbreak of pertussis in 50 years, the rate of vaccination of health care workers languishes at about 20%. By mid-July, 18,000 cases had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with…
This influenza immunization season may be one of the most challenging for the nation’s hospitals as they face a new requirement to track every employee, licensed practitioner, student and volunteer. Beginning in January 2013, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid…
Though the risk of seroconversion to bloodborne infection remains “rare but real,” it is striking to see how many health care workers are still enduring the agony and uncertainy of needlesticks and sharps injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and…