Publications by authors named "Dakoda J Herman"

Background: Patients who test positive for by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), with a negative toxin enzyme immunoassay (EIA), are commonly colonized and do not require treatment. However, clinicians often treat based on a positive PCR result regardless of the toxin EIA result. We evaluated the clinical impact of a microbiology reporting nudge, changing from a report that included both assay results along with treatment recommendations to one that suggested clinicians consider colonization or early infection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Caring for loved ones with palliative needs can be very stressful for carers'. To address this growing issue, an online Home Caregiver Support Program course was created to provide information to non-professional home caregivers about end-of-life care.

Objectives: To measure non-professional caregivers' perceived level of competence in addressing physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs before and after completing online training modules.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Reactive arthritis, an autoimmune disorder, occurs following gastrointestinal infection with invasive enteric pathogens, such as Salmonella enterica. Curli, an extracellular, bacterial amyloid with cross beta-sheet structure can trigger inflammatory responses by stimulating pattern recognition receptors. Here we show that S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Among human food-borne pathogens, gastroenteritis-causing strains have the most real-world impact. Like all pathogens, their success relies on efficient transmission. Biofilm formation, a specialized physiology characterized by multicellular aggregation and persistence, is proposed to play an important role in the transmission cycle.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pathogenic Salmonella strains that cause gastroenteritis are able to colonize and replicate within the intestines of multiple host species. In general, these strains have retained an ability to form the rdar morphotype, a resistant biofilm physiology hypothesized to be important for Salmonella transmission. In contrast, Salmonella strains that are host-adapted or even host-restricted like Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, tend to cause systemic infections and have lost the ability to form the rdar morphotype.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF