Polymerase chain reaction for Mycobacterium tuberculosis: impact on clinical management of refugees with pulmonary infiltrates.

Study Objectives: Screening for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in war refugees entering low-prevalence countries for TB is a common policy, but workup strategies are difficult and expensive.

Design: Prospective screening of war refugees for TB by chest radiograph and evaluation of the impact of additional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB) on clinical management in case of pulmonary infiltrates suspicious for TB.

Setting: Academic university medical center.

Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among injection drug users: lower prevalence in an injection heroin maintenance program than in an oral methadone program.

Objectives: To compare the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) carriage among injection drug users (IDUs) treated in an injection heroin maintenance program with that among IDUs treated in an oral methadone program, and to determine predictors of S. aureus carriage.

Hand hygiene: a frequently missed lifesaving opportunity during patient care.

Health care-associated infections constitute one of the greatest challenges of modern medicine. Despite compelling evidence that proper hand washing can reduce the transmission of pathogens to patients and the spread of antimicrobial resistance, the adherence of health care workers to recommended hand-hygiene practices has remained unacceptably low. One of the key elements in improving hand-hygiene practice is the use of an alcohol-based hand rub instead of washing with soap and water.

Antimicrobial activity of glucoprotamin: a clinical study of a new disinfectant for instruments.

Objective: To determine the in vitro efficacy of glucoprotamin for the disinfection of instruments.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: University women's hospital.

Distribution of Legionella species and serogroups isolated by culture in patients with sporadic community-acquired legionellosis: an international collaborative survey.

This international collaborative survey identified culture-confirmed legionellosis in 508 patients with sporadic community-acquired legionellosis. Legionella pneumophila constituted 91.5% of the isolates.

Epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: results of a nation-wide survey in Switzerland.

Objective: To assess the epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Switzerland.

Material And Methods: One-year national survey of all MRSA cases detected in a large sample of Swiss healthcare institutions (HCI). Analysis of epidemiological and molecular typing data (PFGE) of MRSA strains.

Legionella resources on the world wide web.

Internet resources that focus on Legionella and legionnaires disease are presented. Web sites were selected on the basis of their content and adherence to suggested standards of medical Internet publishing. Free, accessible, English-language Web sites were categorized according to users' needs as follows: (1) those with comprehensive information on Legionella infection (including pathophysiologic characteristics, symptoms, and treatment of legionnaires disease), (2) those with information on outbreaks and epidemiology (including information for travelers), (3) those with information for researchers, (4) those about prevention, and (5) those with information for laypersons.