Hospital Acquired MRSA Penumonia

Background: Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem and particularly of concern in nosocomial infections. Nosocomial pneumonia occurs in 0.4—1.1% of hospitalized patients. It is the most common infection in intensive care units. Bacterial colonization of the upper airway followed by micro aspiration or macro inspiration into the lungs is considered the primary mechanism for development of nosocomial pneumonia. More than 90% of cases of nosocomial pneumonia are caused by bacteria, 15—30% represented with staphylococcus aureus. Following the data of a 4-year long period the resistance to methicillin was identified in ≈32% with a tendency of increasing percentage of MRSA isolates up to 35%, originated from samples taken among patients from ICU in the Clinical Center of Skopje

‘Our Lives’ and ‘Life Happens’, from stigma to empathy in young people’s depictions of sexual health and relationships

This article describes qualitative research undertaken to explore young people\u27s understanding of sex and relationships that used a scenario-driven body-mapping technique. This art-based method was designed to allow young people to think deeply about the subject and build upon each other\u27s ideas through the medium of decorating a life-sized human body. Although this method produced rich information the depictions of young people tended to be highly stigmatized. We further refined the method to encourage young people to empathize with the character that they created and the resultant research became the basis for the sexual health resource \u27Life Happens\u27

Surveillance, control and management of infections in intensive care units in Southern Europe, Turkey and Iran--a prospective multicenter point prevalence study

PMID = 2426995

Surveillance, control and management of infections in intensive care units in Southern Europe, Turkey and Iran--a prospective multicenter point prevalence study

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare the features of intensive care units (ICUs), their antimicrobial resistance patterns, infection control policies, and distribution of infectious diseases from central Europe to Mid-West Asia. METHODS: A cross-sectional point prevalence study was performed in 88 ICUs from 12 countries. Characteristics of ICUs, patient and antibiotic therapy data were collected with a standard form by infectious diseases specialists. RESULTS: Out of 749, 305 patients at least with one infectious disease were assessed and 254 patients were reported to have coexistent medical problems. When primary infectious diseases diagnoses of the patients were evaluated, 69 had community-acquired, 61 had healthcare-associated, and 176 had hospital-acquired infections. Pneumonia was the most frequent ICU infection seen in half of the patients. Distribution of frequent pathogens was as follows: Enteric Gram-negatives (n = 62, 28.8), Acinetobacter spp. (n = 47, 21.9), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 29, 13.5). Multidrug resistance profiles of the infecting microorganisms seem to have a uniform pattern throughout Southern Europe and Turkey. On the other hand, active and device-associated infection surveillance was performed in Turkey more than Iran and Southeastern Europe (p < 0.05). However, designing antibiotic treatment according to culture results was highest in Southeastern Europe (p < 0.05). The most frequently used antibiotics were carbapenems (n = 92, 30.2), followed by anti-gram positive agents (vancomycin, teicoplanin, linezolid, daptomycin, and tigecycline; n = 79, 25.9), beta-lactam/beta lactamase inhibitors (n = 78, 25.6), and extended-spectrum cephalosporins (n = 73, 23.9). CONCLUSION: ICU features appears to have similar characteristics from the infectious diseases perspective, although variability seems to exist in this large geographical area