Disease relevance of Cross Infection

• CONCLUSIONS--Bacteremia is associated with high short-term mortality, but also a sign of severely curtailed long-term prognosis, especially in patients with low functional capacity, low serum albumin, high serum creatinine, nosocomial infections, malignancy, inappropriate antimicrobial treatment, and septic shock and in elderly patients [1].
• Secondary outcome measures were nosocomial infection rates, attack rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and consumption of handrub disinfectant [2].
• These results suggest that the environment is the most important source of Pseudomonas strains for CF patients and that for cross-infection to occur prolonged intimate contact is required [3].
• METHODS: Patients aged 18 years or more, attending one of fourteen Dutch centres for acute treatment of closed fractures, were randomly allocated to a single preoperative dose of ceftriaxone 2 g or placebo, and evaluated for development of wound infection and nosocomial infection at 10 days, 30 days, and 120 days [4].
• BACKGROUND: Acinetobacter baumannii is an important opportunistic pathogen that is rapidly evolving toward multidrug resistance and is involved in various nosocomial infections that are often severe [5].

High impact information on Cross Infection

• Gentamicin and tobramycin are important antibiotics in the treatment of hospital infections because of their activity against a wide range of bacterial genera [6].
• Records of all patients receiving intravenous gentamicin sulfate during a 92-day interval were reviewed to detect nosocomial infections that had been missed by routine surveillance [7].
• Contaminated aqueous benzalkonium chloride. An unnecessary hospital infection hazard [8].
• BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene prevents cross infection in hospitals, but compliance with recommended instructions is commonly poor [2].
• If this hypothesis is true, early exposure to childcare outside the home would protect against atopy by promotion of cross infections [9].

Chemical compound and disease context of Cross Infection

• To assess the methods being used in US hospitals to prevent the spread of contagious illnesses from hospital employees to patients, we analyzed information obtained in the SENIC Project (Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control) from interviews with hospital officials and staff nurses [10].
• The rate of nosocomial infection in the first month was 10.2% with placebo and 2.3% with ceftriaxone (p < 0.001, Pearson chi 2-test) [4].
• These data suggest that heparin-lock needles should not be used for more than 4 days because, after 4 days of use, there is a significant risk of developing phlebitis, a lesser risk of developing contamination of the infusate in the heparin-lock needle system, and a potential risk of developing nosocomial infection [11].
• Compared with strains from hospital infections (COL and MRSA252), strain MW2 and a methicillin-susceptible relative, MnCop, were significantly more virulent in a mouse model of S. aureus infection, and caused the greatest level of pathology in major vital organs [12].
• Staphylococcus aureus, a common cause of nosocomial infections, is able to invade eukaryotic cells by indirectly engaging beta1 integrin-containing host receptors, whereas non-pathogenic Staphylococcus carnosus is not invasive [13].

Biological context of Cross Infection

• R factors in gentamicin-resistant organisms causing hospital infection [14].
• Over a 12-months period respiratory Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from CF patients were typed by serology and pyocin production to determine whether cross-infection was occurring [3].
• Characteristics of Serratia marcescens containing a plasmid coding for gentamicin resistance in nosocomial infections [15].
• When the isolates were compared with 56,140 strains of S. aureus isolated from non-CF patients hospitalized in Denmark over the same period, no differences in phagetypes or in antibiotic resistance were seen, indicating that selection of strains and cross infection do not seem to be a major problem in CF patients [16].
• The 1976 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (SENIC) established the effectiveness of infection control programs in acute care facilities [17].

Anatomical context of Cross Infection

• Neutrophil CD64 expression: a sensitive diagnostic marker for late-onset nosocomial infection in very low birthweight infants [18].
• Whether granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) may be useful for preventing nosocomial infection in these patients is debated [19].
• Probiotic bacteria have been shown to beneficially influence the intestinal and systemic immune system and mediate protection against nosocomial infections affecting the neonate [20].
• T cells did become infected during the coculture but block of cross-infection of T cells by zidovudine did not abolish the inhibitory effect [21].
• The newer quinolones (ciprofloxacin, enoxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, pefloxacin, and fleroxacin) cover the spectrum of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria causing urinary tract infections, including complicated and nosocomial infections and those caused by multiresistant strains [22].

Gene context of Cross Infection

• Increased IL-6 values are an indicator of the development of a nosocomial infection in trauma patients [23].
• There are an increasing number of reports of P. aeruginosa cross-infection at CF centres [24].
• Plasma levels of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-6, IL-8 and endotoxin were determined on days 1, 4 and 7 after admission when hospital infection was suspected and 4 months later [25].
• Inflammatory chemokine expression in the peripheral blood of neonates with perinatal asphyxia and perinatal or nosocomial infections [26].
• Prophylactic GM-CSF in the very low birth weight neonate may reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections [27].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Cross Infection

• Adaptation of the Centers for Disease Control guidelines for the prevention of nosocomial infection in a pediatric intensive care unit in Jakarta, Indonesia [28].
• However, genotyping with a complex DNA fingerprinting probe revealed that a single strain of C. parapsilosis with decreasing susceptibility to fluconazole was responsible for cross-infections that caused BSIs in the NICU over a 12-year period [29].
• Genomic DNA fingerprinting by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis as an epidemiological marker for study of nosocomial infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [30].
• CONCLUSION: In this patient population, use of filgrastim was safe and the agent appeared to reduce the risk of primary bacteremias but had no beneficial effects on mortality, length of stay, or other nosocomial infections [31].
• Both desiccation tolerance and multidrug resistance may contribute to their maintenance in the hospital setting and may explain in part their propensity to cause prolonged outbreaks of nosocomial infection [32].

References