Disinfection may help reduce contamination on surgical implants but doesn’t eliminate it entirely.
The guidance aims to help accelerate the development of new antibiotics for severe, drug-resistant gram-negative and gram-positive infections and community-acquired and health care-associated bacterial meningitis.
Infections acquired in health care settings kill 3 times more people than car accidents each year.
US acute care hospitals in 2024 saw lower rates of healthcare-associated infections compared with 2023, marking a continued decline from COVID pandemic-era highs.
Measures such as universal masking, enhanced hand hygiene, and increased visitor restrictions likely helped limit viral transmission.
The Healthcare Infection Prevention Advisory Group (HIPAG) will offer evidence-backed advisory expertise on infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship.
A decolonization intervention at three US nursing homes reduced carriage of multidrug-resistant organisms in residents, but rooms of those still colonized were highly contaminated.
The appliances didn't cut infections per zone, but modeling showed that they did reduce overall incidence by 12%.
Investing in home healthcare workforce capacity, resources, and infection-prevention training is essential to protect vulnerable patients, the authors say.
Critics say the move will put patients at risk at a time when threats from emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance are on the rise.
