ICU catheter-related infections can be prevented, a Keystone ICU initiative that kept rates at nearly zero for three years in Michigan hospitals showed. By implementing low-tech measures such as removing unnecessary catheters and handwashing, the hospitals saw no rebound in catheter-related infections, Peter J. Pronovost of Johns Hopkins and colleagues reported online in British Medical Journal. The researchers found that in the first 18 months of their initiative, catheter-related infections dropped from an average of 7.7 per 1,000 catheter days to zero. Three years later, infection rates remained near zero, with an average of 1.1 per 1,000 catheter days. The results show that hospitals are mistaken in thinking these infections are inevitable, Pronovost said.

A policy requiring influenza vaccination improves immunization rates of health care workers, a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases found. The study, conducted by Hilary Babcock of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues, focused on BJC Healthcare, a Midwest multihospital health care system, which implemented a mandatory influenza vaccination policy for its 26,000 employees in 2008. The policy increased the system’s vaccination rate to 98 percent, compared with 71 percent in 2007 and 54 percent in 2006, the study said. These results reveal that such policies lead to extremely high vaccination coverage rates among health care workers, the researchers said.

Face masks and hand hygiene may reduce respiratory illnesses in shared living settings and mitigate the impact of the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic.

Use of a new genetic profiling tool that was able to distinguish closely related strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and shed light on how the bacteria spread. Researchers from the University of Cambridge, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and colleagues said having the ability to track how MRSA mutates should help spark novel infection control strategies that can be applied to other emerging superbugs. The researchers used high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies to analyze a common strain of the bacteria known as ST239, and said the technology allowed them to construct a rough genetic evolutionary tree for the strain.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is spread by patients who are transferred or move between hospitals. Researchers from the University Medical Center in Groningen, the Netherlands, and colleagues said screening people who are repeatedly admitted to different hospitals could help significantly curb the transmission rate of the drug-resistant bug.

Between May and July 2009, a total of 251 children were hospitalized with 2009 H1N1 influenza. Rates of hospitalization were double those for seasonal influenza in 2008. Of the children who were hospitalized, 47 (19%) were admitted to an intensive care unit, 42 (17%) required mechanical ventilation, and 13 (5%) died. The overall rate of death was 1.1 per 100,000 children, as compared with 0.1 per 100,000 children for seasonal influenza in 2007. (No pediatric deaths associated with seasonal influenza were reported in 2008.) Most deaths were caused by refractory hypoxemia in infants under 1 year of age (death rate, 7.6 per 100,000).

Conclusions Pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza was associated with pediatric death rates that were 10 times the rates for seasonal influenza in previous years.