By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief
Taken by Dr. Heidi Soeters during Guinea’s 2014 Ebola outbreak, photo depicts red- and green-colored gloves propped on sticks to dry after being washed in a hyperchlorinated solution./CDC
It’s sad but not surprising that Ebola has all but disappeared from the headlines. After all, it’s not an imminent threat here anymore. There’s […]
Ms. W. post-recovery, with her husband
By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor
“I survived, although I had been told that I’d eventually die from infection in the wounds.”
In one of this month’s two CE features, “Calciphylaxis: An Unusual Case with an Unusual Outcome,” Tina Wangen and colleagues report on the intriguing story of L.W., a 40-year-old patient who, aside from being female, had no other known risk factors for the disease. Here’s an overview of the article:
Calciphylaxis is most common in patients with end-stage renal disease, and hyperparathyroidism is often present as well. But several cases in patients with normal renal and parathyroid function have been reported; this article describes one such case. The etiology and pathophysiology of calciphylaxis aren’t well understood. There are many risk factors, and the reported median survival time is 2.6 months after diagnosis. The condition is characterized by isolated or multiple lesions that progress to firm, nonulcerated plaques and then to ischemic skin necrosis and ulceration.
In August 2010, a female patient arrived at the hospital with multiple deep, painful necrotic wounds. Given this patient’s presentation on admission, the nurses kept expecting the physicians to initiate end-of-life discussions with her and were surprised when this did not happen. After five days, the patient was diagnosed with calciphylaxis in the unusual presentation of […]
This post is follow-up to our widely shared post (“Ebola: A Nurse Epidemiologist Puts the Outbreak in Perspective”) by AJN clinical editor Betsy Todd. The author, Amanda Anderson, is a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City who is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week. Her last post for this blog is here.
By Karen Roush, clinical managing editor
In this world of evidence-based care, is there anything to be said for common sense? Last week a study was published in the American Journal of Infection Control that found that a fist bump transmitted fewer organisms than a handshake.
Really? We know that hands carry untold numbers of organisms. We know that skin-to-skin contact transmits organisms. We know that duration of contact plays a role in how many organisms are transmitted. Did we need a study to tell us that hand-to-hand contact with less surface area for a shorter duration of time would transmit fewer organisms?
With the attention being paid to this study, you might think it was a major discovery. Why? Because it’s fun to talk about fist bumps versus handshakes? (David Letterman seems to think so; he recently opened his monologue with a joke about the study results.) Because we kind of like the visual of everyone, from the staid to the cool, walking around giving fist bumps?
Or perhaps, on a serious note, because we’re still struggling unsuccessfully to get people to simply wash their hands and are ready to jump on anything that mitigates the risk of transmission when they don’t? (Adherence to hand hygiene guidelines among health care workers remains low. Read our March 2013 CE–Original Research feature, in which authors […]
By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor
Coronaviruses derive their name from the fact that under electron microscopic examination, each virion is surrounded by a ‘corona,’ or halo. CDC image by Cynthia Goldsmith/Maureen Metcalfe/Azaibi Tamin
In recent weeks, there have been a number of news stories following the first U.S. cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and the first transmission of the virus that occurred on U.S. soil. This novel coronavirus (the common cold is a coronavirus; so is SARS) can cause respiratory failure and death. So far, the number of identified cases are relatively few, though the numbers are growing. Disease surveillance has been aggressive since the first case was identified in Saudi Arabia.
Back in January, before the U.S. had seen its first cases, infection prevention specialist Betsy Todd provided a clear, engaging overview of MERS in […]
