Importance: The results of prediction models that stratify patients with sepsis and risk of resistant gram-negative bacilli (GNB) infections inform treatment guidelines. However, these models do not extrapolate well across hospitals.
Objective: To assess whether patient case mix and local prevalence rates of resistance contributed to the variable performance of a general risk stratification GNB sepsis model for community-onset and hospital-onset sepsis across hospitals.
Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol
October 2024
Objective: To measure SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid (anti-N) antibody seropositivity among healthcare personnel (HCP) without a history of COVID-19 and to identify HCP characteristics associated with seropositivity.
Design: Prospective cohort study from September 22, 2020, to March 3, 2022.
Setting: A tertiary care academic medical center.
Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) affect approximately 250 million people annually worldwide. Patients often experience a cycle of antimicrobial treatment and recurrent UTI (rUTI) that is thought to be facilitated by a gut reservoir of uropathogenic (UPEC).
Methods: 125 patients with UTI caused by an antibiotic-resistant organism (ARO) were enrolled from July 2016 to May 2019 in a longitudinal, multi-center cohort study.
Background: Sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. When selecting empiric antibiotics for sepsis, clinicians are encouraged to use local resistance rates, but their impact on individual outcomes is unknown. Improved methods to predict outcomes are needed to optimize treatment selection and improve antibiotic stewardship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBetween May and June 2021, healthcare personnel at two long-term care facilities underwent SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid immunoglobulin G testing and completed a survey on COVID-19 exposures and symptoms. Antibody positivity rate was 8.9%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo improve contact tracing for healthcare workers, we built and configured a Bluetooth low-energy system. We predicted close contacts with great accuracy and provided an additional contact yield of 14.8%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol
August 2023
Objective: To determine the prevalence of severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) IgG nucleocapsid (N) antibodies among healthcare personnel (HCP) with no prior history of COVID-19 and to identify factors associated with seropositivity.
Design: Prospective cohort study.
Setting: An academic, tertiary-care hospital in St.
Background: SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are effective at reducing symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19. Limited studies have compared symptoms, threshold cycle (Ct) values from reverse transcription (RT)-PCR testing, and serological testing results between previously vaccinated vs unvaccinated populations with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Methods: Healthcare personnel (HCP) with a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test within the previous 14 to 28 days completed surveys including questions about demographics, medical conditions, social factors, and symptoms of COVID-19.
Objectives: Aminoglycosides and β-lactams have been recommended for treatment of sepsis/septic shock despite a lack of mortality benefit. Previous studies have examined resistance emergence for the same bacterial isolate using old dosing regimens and during a narrow follow-up window. We hypothesised that combination regimens employing aminoglycosides will decrease the cumulative incidence of infections due to multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) compared with β-lactams alone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol
October 2023
Objective: To characterize experiences, beliefs, and perceptions of risk related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), infection prevention practices, and COVID-19 vaccination among healthcare personnel (HCP) at nonacute care facilities.
Design: Anonymous survey.
Setting: Three non-acute-care facilities in St.
Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol
July 2022
Objective: To identify characteristics associated with positive severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in healthcare personnel.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: A multihospital healthcare system.
Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol
October 2022
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine effectiveness in the early months of vaccine availability was high among healthcare personnel (HCP) at 88.3% for 2-doses. Among those testing positive for severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), those with breakthrough infection after vaccination were more likely to have had a non-work-related SARS-CoV-2 exposure compared to unvaccinated HCP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a prospective cohort of healthcare personnel (HCP), we measured severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleocapsid IgG antibodies after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among 79 HCP, 68 (86%) were seropositive 14-28 days after their positive PCR test, and 54 (77%) of 70 were seropositive at the 70-180-day follow-up. Many seropositive HCP (95%) experienced an antibody decline by the second visit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this prospective, longitudinal study, we examined the risk factors for severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among a cohort of chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients and healthcare personnel (HCPs) over a 6-month period. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among HD patients and HCPs was consistently associated with a household member having SARS-CoV-2 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol
March 2022
Objective: Patients on dialysis are at high risk for severe COVID-19 and associated morbidity and mortality. We examined the humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 in a maintenance dialysis population.
Design: Single-center cohort study.
Background: A greater proportion of patients with surgical risk factors are undergoing immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy, resulting in the need for better risk prediction to inform decisions about the procedure. The objective of this study was to leverage clinical data to restructure a previously developed risk model to predict serious infectious and noninfectious wound complications after mastectomy alone and mastectomy plus immediate reconstruction for use during a surgical consultation.
Methods: The study established a cohort of women age 21 years or older treated with mastectomy from 1 July 2010 to 31 December 2015 using electronic health records from two hospitals.
Large-scale genomic studies have identified within-host adaptation as a hallmark of bacterial infections. However, the impact of physiological, metabolic, and immunological differences between distinct niches on the pathoadaptation of opportunistic pathogens remains elusive. Here, we profile the within-host adaptation and evolutionary trajectories of 976 isolates representing 119 lineages of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) sampled longitudinally from both the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts of 123 patients with urinary tract infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with community prevalence.Increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with exposure to infected family members and personal infection prevention measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmunocompromised adults can have prolonged acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive RT-PCR results, long after the initial diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to determine if SARS-CoV-2 virus can be recovered in viral cell culture from immunocompromised adults with persistently positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests. We obtained 20 remnant SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive nasopharyngeal swabs from 20 immunocompromised adults with a positive RT-PCR test ≥14 days after the initial positive test.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with post-discharge prophylactic antibiotic use after spinal fusion and whether use was associated with decreased risk of surgical site infection (SSI).
Methods: Persons aged 10-64 years undergoing spinal fusion between 1 January 2010 and 30 June 2015 were identified in the MarketScan Commercial Database. Complicated patients and those coded for infection from 30 days before to 2 days after the surgical admission were excluded.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
October 2022
Background: Prophylactic antibiotics are commonly prescribed at discharge for mastectomy, despite guidelines recommending against this practice. We investigated factors associated with postdischarge prophylactic antibiotic use after mastectomy with and without immediate reconstruction and the impact on surgical-site infection (SSI).
Study Design: We studied a cohort of women aged 18-64 years undergoing mastectomy between January 1, 2010, and June 30, 2015, using the MarketScan commercial database.
As the nation seeks to recruit and retain physician-scientists, gaps remain in understanding and addressing mitigatable challenges to the success of faculty from underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists program, implemented in 2015 at 10 academic medical centers in the United States, seeks to retain physician-scientists at risk of leaving science because of periods of extraordinary family caregiving needs, hardships that URM faculty-especially those who identify as female-are more likely to experience. At the annual Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists program directors conference in 2018, program directors-21% of whom identify as URM individuals and 13% as male-addressed issues that affect URM physician-scientists in particular.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol
February 2022
Objective: Alteration of the colonic microbiota following antimicrobial exposure allows colonization by antimicrobial-resistant organisms (AROs). Ingestion of a probiotic, such as Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), could prevent colonization or infection with AROs by promoting healthy colonic microbiota. The purpose of this trial was to determine the effect of LGG administration on ARO colonization in hospitalized patients receiving antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore than 50% of women with clinically apparent infection after mastectomy did not meet the 2020 National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definition for surgical site infection (SSI). Implant loss was similar whether the 2020 NHSN SSI definition was met or not, suggesting equivalent adverse outcomes regardless of restriction to the surveillance definition.
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