Canadian researchers have discovered in the country an infectious superbug that is deadly to people with cystic fibrosis. In a 446-patient study, researchers found about 15 percent of the subjects to be infected with the bacteria, an A strain of the P aeruginosa bug, which doubled or tripled the risk of death or the need for a lung transplant during the three-year period. Resistant to most antibiotics, the strain first was identified in Liverpool in 1996. The study said that the superbug, commonly found in showers, bathtubs and hot tubs, attacks seven out of every 1,000 cystic fibrosis patients each year.

Erik Dubberke of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said that the wearing of gloves when caring for a patient with a Clostridium difficile infection is the single recommended practice graded "A-I." As evidence, Dubberke pointed to a 1990 study performed prior to the introduction of universal and standard precautions that randomized four wards with similar baseline rates of CDI. Some of the wards continued with standard of care, while others implemented an education campaign instructing nurses to wear gloves. The study showed a statistically significant decrease in CDI incidence in the intervention wards.

A study has been launched by researchers at the Medical College of Georgia to identify how to optimize communications in health care settings to avert fatal catheter-related bloodstream infections. According to the CDC, such infections, which annually cause 28,000 deaths and generate $9 billion in health care costs, are preventable if correct practices are adhered to. However, "while some hospitals have succeeded in implementing these standards, many have not," said Pavani Rangachari, the principal investigator on the study. Therefore, Rangachari and her team have been given a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to analyze hospital communication logs in an attempt to pinpoint why some protocols are more successful than others at preventing infections.

The rate of adherence to hand hygiene practices among health care workers increased 6 percent following the institution of a multifaceted intervention, However, the incidence of MRSA colonization did not fall. Researchers conducted their study in three tertiary care hospitals in Ontario, Canada. Of the 30 total hospital units studied, 15 were randomly assigned to the intervention technique, which included performance feedback, small-group teaching seminars and posters, and the other 15 were assigned usual practice. Hand hygiene adherence in the intervention group was 48.2 percent, compared with 42.6 percent in the control group.

New government data show MRSA to be more prevalent in the U.S. than in the UK, and that Americans are more than six times as likely as Britons to contract the superbug in their communities, although rates of hospital infections are about equal.  The government statistics found that about 29 per 100,000 people in the U.S. contract a MRSA bloodstream infection every year, compared with 11 Britons.

Yale University researchers reported that they were able to introduce foreign small molecules into the cell wall of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. The researchers focused on introducing biotin, fluorescein and azide into the bacteria, and they noted that the procedure could be applied to naturally occurring bacteria in the human body. The researchers said the findings could lead to better approaches for fighting drug-resistant bacteria or allow for the observation of the progression of disease in the human body in real time.

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Prevention Epicenter Program found that growing rates of Clostridium difficile infection could indicate a regional problem, rather than an issue at a single health care institution. In the study, the researchers compared CDI incidence rates from 2000 to 2006 among five U.S. academic medical centers. They found that during the period, overall incidence rates of CDI increased, whether the infections were health care facility-onset, community-onset or health care facility-associated. Additionally, the researchers discovered significant differences in the total incidence rate among health care institutions for each surveillance definition of CDI.

Researchers have been working to develop a set of antimicrobials to improve their effectiveness, kill specific types of bugs or reduce their potential side effects on people and the environment.  . Led by biochemical engineer Jonathan Dordick, scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a new way to kill MRSA by coating nanotubes with the enzyme lysostaphin, which destroys the bugs by deflating them. In this experiment, published in ACS Nano, the researchers found that within two hours, the enzyme combination killed more than 99 percent of MRSA. Dordick said these nanotubes could ultimately be added to paint and other substances to coat walls or medical devices.