Infection That Killed Infants at PA Hospital Linked to Breast Milk Equipment

Infection control specialists have determined that the source of bacteria that killed three infants at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., was equipment used to measure and administer donor breast milk, according to news reports.

In addition to the three deaths, the pseudomonas bacterium sickened eight in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

The hospital switched to single-use equipment following the outbreak. There have been no new cases of infants becoming ill from pseudomonas in the NICU since making the change, the hospital reported.

Read the Associated Press's coverage of the news.

Surgical Site Infections Linked to Increased Mortality, Study Finds

The results of a new study show that patients with a surgical site infection (SSI) are more likely to experience increases in mortality and long-term infection risk.

The retrospective observational cohort study, published in JAMA Surgery, examined whether an infection contracted during the first 30 days following a surgical procedure was associated with increased incidence of mortality and infection during the roughly 11 months that followed (postoperative days 31 to 365).

The study included nearly 660,000 veterans undergoing major surgery through the Veterans Health Administration from January 2008 to December 2015. As the researchers note, at any given point between postoperative days 31 to 365, patients who experienced postoperative infection during the initial 30 postoperative days had a 1.9-fold higher risk of mortality and 3.2-fold higher risk of one-year infection compared with those patients without a 30-day infection.  

Among these patients, about 3.6% had a 30-day infection, about 6.6% had a long-term infection and about 3.8% died during follow-up. The most frequent types of postoperative infection were urinary tract infection, skin and soft tissue infection, bloodstream infection, pneumonia or a simultaneous combination of multiple infection types.

The researchers conclude, "Preventive efforts in the first 30 days postoperatively may improve long-term patient outcomes."

CDC Publishes 2018 Healthcare-Associated Infection Progress Report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published its 2018 Healthcare-Associated Infection Progress Report. The report provides year-to-year progress (2017 to 2018) on the prevention of key healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in acute care hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities.

The HAI Progress Report consists of national and state-by-state summaries of HAIs across the settings. More specifically, it provides data from the National Healthcare Safety Network on central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), ventilator-associated events (VAEs), surgical site infections (SSIs), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream events and Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) events. 

While progress was achieved in some areas, more significant improvements are needed in others.

National highlights from the 2018 HAI Progress Report include the following:

• Acute Care Hospitals: Significant decrease in CLABSIs, CAUTIs and C. difficile infections. No significant change in MRSA bacteremia, abdominal hysterectomy SSIs, colon surgery SSIs and VAEs.

• Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals: Significant decrease in CAUTIs, MRSA bacteremia and C. difficile infections. No significant change in VAEs.

• Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities: Significant decrease in C. difficile infections. No significant change in CLABSIs, CAUTIs and MRSA bacteremia.

Working toward the reduction and eventual elimination of HAIs should be a priority of all healthcare organizations. Data indicates that on any given day, about 1 in 31 hospital patients has at least one HAI. They lead to the preventable loss of tens of thousands of lives and cost the U.S. healthcare system billions of dollars annually.