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Background

Knowledge of seasonal trends in hospital-associated infection incidence may improve surveillance and help guide the design and evaluation of infection prevention interventions. We estimated seasonal variation in the frequencies of inpatient bloodstream infections (BSIs) caused by common bacterial pathogens and examined associations of monthly BSI frequencies with ambient outdoor temperature, precipitation, and humidity levels.

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We show that respiratory fluoroquinolone use is extremely seasonal and that fluoroquinolone use is strongly associated with influenza. In our time series model, instantaneous influenza activity was a significant predictor of use ([Formula: see text]). Also, we estimated that reducing influenza activity by 20% would reduce prescriptions by 8%.

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Sales for a drug may be correlated with the prevalence of a condition treated by the drug. We found that state data revealed a strong spatial association and national data a strong temporal association between Clostridium difficile and oral vancomycin prescription sales, suggesting a new “signal” for detecting disease activity.

Objective: To describe the prevalence and characteristics of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) in hospitals across the United States and to describe financial support provided for these programs.

Design:  Electronic and paper 14-question survey of infectious diseases physician members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Emerging Infections Network (IDSA EIN). Participants. All 1,044 IDSA EIN members who care for adult patients were invited to participate.

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Health care–associated infections affect 1.7 million hospitalizations each year, but the clinical and economic costs attributable to these infections are poorly understood. Reliable estimates of these costs are needed to efficiently target limited resources for the greatest public health benefit.

Acinetobacter is an increasingly important hospital‐associated pathogen. Multidrug resistance among Acinetobacter species continues to rise, and infection with these multidrug‐resistant organisms has a profound negative impact on patient outcomes. Carbapenem resistance is frequently used by hospitals as a definition for multidrug resistance among Acinetobacter species, because it is often associated with resistance to other antibiotic classes.

In an analysis of more than 300 microbiology labs serving hospitals all over the United States, researchers found that the proportion of MRSA cases in outpatients nearly doubled between 1999 and 2006. The study found that much of the growing burden of MRSA was associated with a greater proportion of newer “community-associated” strains of MRSA, which rose in outpatient units from 3.6 percent to 28.2 percent—amounting to a seven-fold jump during the study period.