scholarly journals The Emerging Epidemiology of VRE in Canada: Results of the CNISP Passive Reporting Network, 1994 to 1998

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 364-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M Conly ◽  
Marianna Ofner-Agostini ◽  
Shirley Paton ◽  
Lynn Johnston ◽  
Michael Mulvey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Acute Care ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Care Community ◽  
Hospital Infection Control ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Canadian Health Care

OBJECTIVE:To provide a rapid and efficient means of collecting descriptive epidemiological data on occurrences of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) in Canada.DESIGN AND METHODS:Passive reporting of data on individual or cluster occurrences of VRE using a one-page surveillance form.SETTING:The surveillance form was periodically distributed to all Canadian Hospital Epidemiology Committee members, Community and Hospital Infection Control Association members, L'Association des professionnels pour la prevention des infections members and provincial laboratories, representing 650 health care facilities across Canada.PATIENTS:Patients colonized or infected with VRE within Canadian health care facilities.RESULTS:Until the end of 1998, 263 reports of VRE were received from 113 health care facilities in 10 provinces, comprising a total of 1315 cases of VRE, with 1246 cases colonized (94.7%), 61 infected (4.6%)and eight of unknown status. (0.6%). VRE occurrences were reported in 56% of acute care teaching facilities and 38% of acute care community facilities. All facilities of more than 800 beds reported VRE occurences compared with only 10% of facilities with less than 200 beds (r2=0.86). Medical and surgical wards accounted for 51.4% of the reported VRE occurences. Sixty-five (24.7%) reports indicated an index case was from a foreign country, with 85.2% from the United States and 14.8% from other countries. Some type of screening was conducted in 50% of the sites.CONCLUSIONS:A VRE passive reporting network provided a rapid and efficient means of providing data on the evolving epidemiology of VRE in Canada.

scholarly journals Community-Acquired Methicillin-ResistaneStaphylococcus aureus: Getting over It

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 323-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
LE Nicolle
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Canadian Health Care ◽  
Resistant Strains ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Death Taxes ◽  
Rapid Emergence

There are three sure things in life: death, taxes and antimicrobial resistance appearing on the heels of the introduction and widespread use of an antimicrobial agent. Staphylococcus aureus has always been a poster child for the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (1). Penicillin-resistant strains of S aureus surfaced immediately following the introduction of penicillin in the late 1940s; within a few years, most hospital strains were penicillin resistant. There was also the rapid emergence of methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) following the introduction of methicillin in the 1960s. While the replacement of nosocomial methicillin-susceptible S aureus by MRSA has proceeded at different rates in different regions, the overall global progression has been relentless. MRSA became common in Canadian health care facilities later than in the United States; however, since the early 1990s, nosocomial MRSA in Canada has steadily and irrevocably increased (2).

Wheelchair cleaning and disinfection in Canadian health care facilities: “That's wheelie gross!”

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1173-1177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Gardner ◽  
Matthew P. Muller ◽  
Betty Prior ◽  
Ken So ◽  
Jane Tooze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Canadian Health Care ◽  
Cleaning And Disinfection

scholarly journals Characterizing the Rural Opioid Use Environment in Kentucky Using Google Earth: Virtual Audit

10.2196/14923 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. e14923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Danielle Crawford ◽  
Regine Haardöerfer ◽  
Hannah Cooper ◽  
Izraelle McKinnon ◽  
Carla Jones-Harrell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Care Facilities

Background The opioid epidemic has ravaged rural communities in the United States. Despite extensive literature relating the physical environment to substance use in urban areas, little is known about the role of physical environment on the opioid epidemic in rural areas. Objective This study aimed to examine the reliability of Google Earth to collect data on the physical environment related to substance use in rural areas. Methods Systematic virtual audits were performed in 5 rural Kentucky counties using Google Earth between 2017 and 2018 to capture land use, health care facilities, entertainment venues, and businesses. In-person audits were performed for a subset of the census blocks. Results We captured 533 features, most of which were images taken before 2015 (71.8%, 383/533). Reliability between the virtual audits and the gold standard was high for health care facilities (>83%), entertainment venues (>95%), and businesses (>61%) but was poor for land use features (>18%). Reliability between the virtual audit and in-person audit was high for health care facilities (83%) and entertainment venues (62%) but was poor for land use (0%) and businesses (12.5%). Conclusions Poor reliability for land use features may reflect difficulty characterizing features that require judgment or natural changes in the environment that are not reflective of the Google Earth imagery because it was captured several years before the audit was performed. Virtual Google Earth audits were an efficient way to collect rich neighborhood data that are generally not available from other sources. However, these audits should use caution when the images in the observation area are dated.

Challenges of Designing and Implementing High Consequence Infectious Disease Response

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 563-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan M. King ◽  
Chetan Tiwari ◽  
Armin R. Mikler ◽  
Martin O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Disease Response ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
State And Local

AbstractEbola is a high consequence infectious disease—a disease with the potential to cause outbreaks, epidemics, or pandemics with deadly possibilities, highly infectious, pathogenic, and virulent. Ebola’s first reported cases in the United States in September 2014 led to the development of preparedness capabilities for the mitigation of possible rapid outbreaks, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) providing guidelines to assist public health officials in infectious disease response planning. These guidelines include broad goals for state and local agencies and detailed information concerning the types of resources needed at health care facilities. However, the spatial configuration of populations and existing health care facilities is neglected. An incomplete understanding of the demand landscape may result in an inefficient and inequitable allocation of resources to populations. Hence, this paper examines challenges in implementing CDC’s guidance for Ebola preparedness and mitigation in the context of geospatial allocation of health resources and discusses possible strategies for addressing such challenges. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:563–566)

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