Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

11 INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY 3 infants die of bacterial infections at Geisinger's NICU By Mackenzie Bean T hree infants died and five others were sickened after contracting Pseu- domonas infections at Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Medical Center, PennLive reported. Geisinger announced the infections Oct. 7. The infections all occurred in pre- mature infants seeking treatment at its neonatal intensive care unit. The three deaths "may have been a result of the infection complicating their already vulnerable state due to extreme prematurity," Edward Hartle, MD, executive vice president and CMO at Geisinger, said in a statement emailed to Becker's. The hospital's infection control team used DNA testing to trace the bacteria back to equipment used to measure donor breast milk. The Pennsylvania Department of Health visited Geisinger Oct. 18 and cited the hospital for not having a written policy to clean this equipment. "We immediately corrected the citation and drafted a new policy," Dr. Hartle told The Daily Item. As of Nov. 8, Geisinger was still transferring premature infants and women expected to give birth before 32 weeks to other hospitals as a precaution. n AI could pave way for more effective flu shots By Gabrielle Masson R esearchers at Berg, a Boston-based pharmaceutical startup, are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop predictive ways to fight the flu, Time reported. To understand the biology behind effec- tive immune responses to the flu, Berg and Sanofi are using an AI algorithm to analyze data from patient samples exposed to the vaccine. By using AI and machine learning tools, re- searchers hope to gain a better understand- ing of immune responses to then develop more precise flu shots and even person- alized flu prevention, Niven Narain, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Berg, told Time. Flu vaccines are currently based on experts' predictions about which strains will be most pervasive in the upcoming flu season, but they're not always right. "We really don't have a handle on exactly what type of response a new vaccine should be inducing to give us the best protection," Richard Webby, PhD, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis,Tenn., told Time. Berg's partnership with Sanofi allows them to study a large number of patients and measure multiple immune response vari- ables, Dr. Webby added. New information about immune response has already been learned from other AI efforts, Jacco Boon, PhD, assistant professor of medicine specializing in influenza virol- ogy at Washington University in St. Louis, told Time. Researchers are using machine learning to predict the spread of influen- za through the culmination of physician data, social media posts, Google searches and retail information. e CDC posts an aggregation of these predictions online to show flu prevalence and where it is likely to spread. n Flu shot may offer limited protection this season By Gabrielle Masson T his season's flu shot may offer limited protection since two of the four strains included in the vaccine do not match the most dominant strains seen in the Southern Hemisphere's flu season, which ended in Septem- ber, according to STAT. Flu experts analyze global data twice a year to predict which flu strains should be included in next season's vaccines for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Officials met in late September and determined that the H3N2 and B/Victoria components of the vaccine should be changed for next year to better protect against the dominant strains seen in the Southern Hemi- sphere's winter. The Northern Hemisphere's current vaccine does not contain the dominant strains experienced in the southern winter, suggesting that the current vaccine may not provide optimal flu protection this season. Health experts delayed issuing a recommendation for what virus strains to include in this season's vaccine to conduct more research on H3N2 strains. The H3N2 strain they selected differs from the one that was most dominant the Southern Hemisphere this season. Therefore, the strain is more likely to cause the flu this winter than it was last season, Scott Hensley, PhD, associate professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told STAT. While the best flu vaccine composition is difficult to predict, Mr. Hensley said that flu vaccines "often protect against severe disease even when … mismatched." n

• Cover