The National Conference of State Legislatures has released a new report that offers lessons on infection-reporting data from nine of the states that first required medical facilities to report health care-associated infections. The NCSL looked at state laws passed from 2005 to 2009 and interviewed state lawmakers, health care providers and other related groups in Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. Since 2005, the number of states that require health care facilities to report HAIs has jumped from six to 27.

Lee E. Morrow of Creighton University and colleagues have discovered that cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients in hospitals were cut in half after patients were given probiotic bacteria. The study involved 138 critically ill patients from a single hospital, who were either given placebo or the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Donald Craven of the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Mass., said the results "hold promise for trying to prevent an infection that has serious morbidity, mortality and is a major factor for hospital costs that we’re trying to contain."

The New England Journal of Medicine published findings from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital that suggested gram-negative bacteria play a significant role in about 30 percent of hospital-acquired infections in the U.S. The findings showed that such bacteria were the predominant players in 47 percent of ventilator-associated pneumonia cases and 45 percent of urinary tract infections. The researchers noted that almost any gram-negative bacteria can cause bloodstream infection if an adequate portal of entry is present.

根據一位大力推動手術房器械例行控管的英國調查人員表示，手術進行中氣管插管的氣囊壓可能太高。

The study, by anesthesiologists at University College London, found that endotracheal tube (ETT) cuff pressures averaged 41 cm H₂O—16 cm H₂O greater than the recommended maximum level of 25 cm H₂O in the United Kingdom. Pressures that high could increase patients’ risk for sore throat, hoarseness and difficulty swallowing.

 ·       全美國、成人與兒童年齡層疫情爆發的發病率追蹤