As the world is responding to the daily challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government faces critical decisions that weigh public health against economic resilience. Congress is currently battling with the question of whether to grant companies immunity...
Patients who enter a health care facility, especially hospitals and long-term care facilities, are at risk of contracting an infection due to conditions they are exposed to. Unfortunately, these infections are likely to be very serious. Some are resistant to the...
Healthcare-associated infections kill 100,000 each year in the U.S., often because basic safety guidelines are not followed. That is what makes a medical study recently published in the American Journal of Infection Control so disconcerting. Approximately one in five...
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) is an untreatable brain disease affecting one in one million people each year. It is thankful that CJD is rare, because it is often regarded as the human version of "mad cow" disease, quickly transforming healthy brain proteins into...
Ashanti Norals, 11, suffered a relatively minor knee injury at school, but hospital negligence led to the amputation of all four of her limbs. To live a quality life, she needs a home modified for her handicaps, a personal assistant, prosthetic limbs and a specialized...
The word "tuberculosis" used to bring trepidation to Americans.The creation of the antibiotic streptomycin in 1946 largely quieted this fear, but a new drug-resistant strain of the disease has surfaced in recent decades. A recent tuberculosis outbreak at a Las Vegas...
Health care-associated infections (HAIs) affect 1 in 20 patients, according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HAIs are a top-10 cause of death in the United States, killing 2,500 annually, but the problem only seems to be worsening. A new...
Patients go to the hospital to improve their health, but each year 1.7 million Americans become worse when they suffer a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). These infections may involve deadly bacteria like clostridium difficile (C. diff), methicillin-resistant...
Norovirus is a virus which can cause severe gastrointestinal illness (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea). The illness usually lasts between 24 and 72 hours and can lead to dehydration in children, debilitated persons, and the elderly. This virus has been isolated as the...
