Becker's Hospital Review

17 INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY New HIV strain identified, first in 19 years By Gabrielle Masson R esearchers have discovered the first new strain of HIV since 2000, according to research pub- lished Nov. 6 in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Abbott Laboratories, which screens more than 60 per- cent of the global blood supply, detected the rare HIV strain in three samples. One sample dated back to 2001, when there wasn't available technology to register the new strain, called HIV-1 group M subtype L. "Now that we know it exists, it'll change how we look for it," Mary Rodgers, PhD, senior author of the paper and head of Abbott's Global Viral Surveillance Program, told Scientific American. She added that the recently discovered subtype belongs to the most common form of HIV, group M, which accounts for more than 90 percent of all HIV cases. "The calling card of HIV is its diversity. That's what's defeated all of our attempts to create a vaccine," Jonah Sacha, PhD, a professor at the Vaccine and Gene Thera- py Institute at Portland-based Oregon Health & Science University, who was not involved in the new research, told Scientific American. However, a different health expert who was not involved in the study said identifying a new strain doesn't add much to the knowledge of HIV. It isn't surprising to find several diverse HIV strains in Central Africa, which is where the virus originated, Michael Worobey, PhD, head of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tucson-based University of Arizona, told Scientific American. n US spent $5B+ to treat flu in the 2016-17 season By Anuja Vaidya D uring 2016-17, the U.S. spent an annual average total of $5.2 billion on influenza treatments, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The report analyzed healthcare use and expenditure during the 2016-17 flu season. AHRQ found that an annual average of 2.7 percent of the U.S. civilian population received some treatment for flu. There were approximately 3.1 million children and 5.7 million adults treat- ed for the flu on average per year during the two-year period. Of all the people treated for the flu, an annual average of 78.6 percent had at least one ambulatory visit, 63.8 percent had at least one prescribed medicine fill and 11.8 percent had at least one emergency room visit. The annual mean expenses per person to treat the flu was $312 for ambulatory visits, $119 for prescribed medicines and $840 for emergency room visits. The overall annual mean expense across all services was $587 per person. Expenditures included payments from all sources — private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, out-of-pocket and miscella- neous — for flu-related care. n Geisinger detects source of NICU infections that killed 3 infants By Mackenzie Bean D anville, Pa.-based Geisinger Medical Center identified contaminated equipment as the source of Pseudomonas bacteria that killed three infants and sickened five others in its neonatal intensive care unit last fall, according to e Daily Item. e hospital's infection control team used DNA testing to trace the bacteria back to equipment used to measure donor breast milk. e Pennsylvania Department of Health visited Geisinger Oct. 18 and found numerous infection control issues at the medical center's NICU, including failure to properly sanitize the breast milk equipment. Health officials cited the hospital for not having a written policy to clean these items. "We immediately corrected the citation, draed a new policy and implemented a new process the same day," Geisinger spokesperson Matthew Van Stone told e Citizen's Voice in January. "Since implementing these measures and more, there have been no new cases of infants becoming ill from pseudomonas in the neonatal intensive care unit." n CDC reports national decrease in HAIs By Gabrielle Masson I n 2018, national healthcare-associated infections decreased, with acute-care hospitals reducing Clostridium difficile infections by 12 percent, central line-associated bloodstream infections by 9 percent and catheter-associated urinary tract infections by 8 percent, according to a CDC report. Compared to 2015, all states but one performed better on at least two infection types. Forty-four states improved performance for at least three infection types and 33 states performed better on at least four infection types. There were no significant changes reported in ventilator- associated events, surgical site infections or MRSA between 2017 and 2018. n

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