Survey of influenza and other respiratory viruses diagnostic testing in US hospitals, 2012-2013.

Background: Little is known about laboratory capacity to routinely diagnose influenza and other respiratory viruses at clinical laboratories and hospitals.

Aims: We sought to assess diagnostic practices for influenza and other respiratory virus in a survey of hospitals and laboratories participating in the US Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network in 2012-2013.

Materials And Methods: All hospitals and their associated laboratories participating in the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurv-NET) were included in this evaluation.

Estimating influenza disease burden from population-based surveillance data in the United States.

Annual estimates of the influenza disease burden provide information to evaluate programs and allocate resources. We used a multiplier method with routine population-based surveillance data on influenza hospitalization in the United States to correct for under-reporting and estimate the burden of influenza for seasons after the 2009 pandemic. Five sites of the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurv-NET) collected data on the frequency and sensitivity of influenza testing during two seasons to estimate under-detection.

Comparing clinical characteristics between hospitalized adults with laboratory-confirmed influenza A and B virus infection.

We challenge the notion that influenza B is milder than influenza A by finding similar clinical characteristics between hospitalized adult influenza-cases. Among patients treated with oseltamivir, length of stay and mortality did not differ by type of virus infection.

Antibiotic susceptibility in the surgical intensive care unit compared with the hospital-wide antibiogram.

Objective: To compare the antibiotic susceptibility of bacterial isolates from patients in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) with hospital-wide bacterial susceptibility.

Design: Retrospective cohort analytic study.

Setting: Eight-bed SICU in a university-affiliated teaching hospital.

Multicenter comparison of BACTEC 9050 and BACTEC 9240 blood culture systems.

The overall recovery of organisms and time to detection with the BACTEC 9050 and BACTEC 9240 systems were compared in a multicenter evaluation. In the first phase of the study, a total of 4,383 compliant aerobic (Plus Aerobic/F) blood culture sets were processed. There was no significant difference in the recovery of individual groups of organisms with the two systems, with the exception of Streptococcus pneumoniae which was isolated more frequently with BACTEC 9050.