Read the latest articles about CLSI and laboratory standards in the official CLSI Blog. Browse our most recent blog articles below.
December 1 is the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is “Know your status”. World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programs for AIDS Prevention. Since then, every year United Nations agencies, governments, and communities join forces to campaign around specific themes related to AIDS.
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November is Clostridium difficile Awareness Month. C. diff was associated with nearly 30,000 deaths in 2011. Historically thought of as a problem mostly confined to hospitals and nursing homes, C. diff rates in the community seem to be on the rise. Antibiotic use is a known factor; hospitalization is another. Clostridial species can resist disinfectants, which is why so many infections occurred in hospitals and nursing homes.
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Accurate specimen identification is critical for quality patient care. Improperly identified specimens can result in delayed diagnosis, additional laboratory testing, treatment of the wrong patient for the wrong disease, and severe transfusion reactions. Specimen identification errors have been reported to occur at rates of 0.1% to 5%.
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An estimated 15 million babies around the world are born premature each year and more than one million of them do not survive. Although the United States has seen sustained improvement in its preterm birth rate, it has one of the highest rates of preterm birth of any industrialized country.
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Diabetes is one of the leading causes of disability and death in the United States. It can cause blindness, nerve damage, kidney disease, and other health problems if uncontrolled. More than 30 million Americans have diabetes; that’s one in 10. Another 84 million adults in the United States are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
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Viral load testing measures the amount of HIV in a patient’s blood sample. Results are reported as the number of copies of HIV RNA per milliliter of blood. Examples of viral load tests include quantitative branched DNA (bDNA), reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and qualitative transcription-mediated amplification. Viral load tests are used to diagnose acute HIV infection, give health care providers treatment guidance, and monitor patient response to antiretroviral therapy (ART).
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Each November, the World Health Organization (WHO) promotes World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) with the aim to increase global awareness of antibiotic resistance (AMR) and to encourage best practices among the general public, health care workers, and policy makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.
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Medical laboratory workers who handle tissue, body fluids, and other specimens from infected patients are at high risk for work-related exposures to infectious material. For some of these organisms, laboratory workers are at greater risk of acquiring such infections than the general population. Laboratory-acquired infections may occur through inhalation; ingestion; direct contact of the eye, nose, mouth, or skin; or parenteral inoculation.
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From October 21-27 we celebrate Healthcare Quality Week (HQW), brought to you by the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ). Implementing a quality management system (QMS) in the laboratory is one important way to improve health care quality. A QMS in the lab can help ensure patient safety and risk management principle application, as well as help prepare a lab for accreditation.
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Patient-Centered Care Awareness Month is an international awareness-building campaign to commemorate the progress that has been made toward making patient-centered care a reality and to build momentum for further progress. This October will mark the ninth annual Patient-Centered Care Awareness Month, and health care organizations and patient groups around the world will be participating in the campaign.
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