Rhinovirus vaccine research
Martin Moore, an associate professor at Emory University and a research scholar at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, has been working on developing a rhinovirus vaccine that has shown promising results in trials on macaques. The monkeys were able to produce antibodies against many types of rhinoviruses. Moore and his colleagues are now following up on those results with more research and hope to move soon to human trials. They’re not alone,...
PHSA Job Posting: IPAC Construction Specialist
The Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) is recruiting for an Infection Protection and Control (IPAC) Construction Specialist. The position is Temporary Part-Time (0.50 FTE Until June 2019), and will be part of the BC Children & Women's (C&W) Redevelopment Project. The IPAC Construction Specialist has an active role in the prevention, surveillance and control of infections during construction, renovation and maintenance at the C&W site. In collaboration with the Corporate Director,...
FDA Safety Communication Update: Mycobacterium chimaera infections associated with 3T Heater-Cooler Systems
Update Oct 24th: You can also read Health Canada's recall alert on this. The FDA has updated its June 1, 2016 Safety Communication to provide new information about Mycobacterium chimaera (M. chimaera) infections associated with the use of the LivaNova PLC (formerly Sorin Group Deutschland GmbH) Stӧckert 3T Heater-Cooler in U.S. patients who have undergone cardiothoracic surgeries. This communication also contains updated recommendations to help prevent the spread of infection related...
Listeriosis Outbreak
Source: Vancouver Coastal Health [edited]: Public safety advisory for customers of Foody World Vancouver Coastal Health [VCH] is warning customers not to consume any produce or ready-to-eat foods made in-house at Foody World, at 3000 Sexsmith Road in Richmond, due to possible listeria contamination. So far at least 6 people have been hospitalized due to the illness. Potentially contaminated items include all ready-to-eat meat products such as BBQ pork and marinated meats, sushi,...
Infection Control Week 2016
The theme of this year’s National Infection Control Week is Infection Control Professionals: The Core of Infection Prevention and Control. To celebrate this theme, all the BC Health Authorities are running features on their IPAC staff this month. (Although we’d like to add that we believe everyone is at the core of infection prevention!) You can view your health authority’s features by following the links below. (Some health authority employees are able...
Enterovirus cases in BC
The BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) Public Health Laboratory has detected several cases of Enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68) in children since mid-August. These are the first laboratory-confirmed cases in B.C. since 2014. “As of September 14, 2016, eight children, including six under the age of two, have had confirmed EV-D68 infections,” said Dr. Mel Krajden, the Medical Director of the Public Health Laboratory. EV-D68 is a virus that causes mild to severe...
Colistin-resistant E.Coli found in another U.S. patient
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a strain of E.Coli that is resistant to the antibiotic of last resort was found in a 2-year-old girl in Connecticut, causing alarm about the potential of dangerous drug resistance spreading across the United States. The girl and three other Americans have been found to have E. coli bacteria that were resistant to an important medicine called colistin. Colistin is...