With masking policies now left in the hands of individual hospitals and health systems to decide, one thing is clear: There is no one-size-fits-all approach for the infection control measure this fall. 

Penn Medicine researchers created an experimental mRNA vaccine that could protect against Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine researchers found Clostridioides difficile infections have more to do with patient characteristics than hospital transmission and that the infection may not be spreading the way previously believed.

Wyoming reported the state's first-ever human case of leptospirosis Sept. 15.

COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths have risen for the eighth consecutive week, according to the CDC's most recent data tracking these metrics through Sept. 2. 

Concern is mounting among healthcare workers over draft CDC infection control guidance that puts surgical masks on par with N95 masks. Nurses and other clinicians are urging the advisory committee to reconsider the proposals to prevent "disastrous" effects on patient and healthcare worker safety, KFF News reported Sept. 16.

Patients with hepatitis C should consider being vaccinated again for hepatitis B, a study found.

Within three months, the flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus has killed six people along the East Coast and one in the Midwest.

The CDC and medical associations have released several new guidelines on infection prevention and control this year.

As the U.S. enters respiratory virus season, some hospitals have already begun to bring back mask mandates — but others are watching trends and waiting to make that determination. 

One month after Baton Rouge, La.-based Our Lady of the Lake Health deployed a new diagnostic tool capable of detecting sepsis within 10 minutes, physicians told Becker's it has already helped clinical teams prioritize faster care for 15 at-risk individuals. 

Researchers used a virus to treat patients with an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection and found good clinical outcomes in 86.6 percent of patients.

A new study suggests hospitals should test all patients for COVID-19 upon admission as an infection control measure to prevent hospital-onset cases when community infection rates are high. 

A group of five medical societies released new recommendations aimed at preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections in acute care hospitals Aug. 25.

CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, detailed the agency's launch of a new hospital program focused on enhancing sepsis care and improving patient outcomes, during an Aug. 24 CDC press call. 

This fall will mark the first virus season since COVID-19 emerged in which hospitals and health systems must independently determine when and how to implement universal masking, if at all. 

Kaiser Permanente is reintroducing a mask mandate at its facilities in Santa Rosa, Calif., amid an uptick in patients testing positive for COVID-19, according to a statement obtained by The Press Democrat. 

Clark Memorial Health in Jeffersonville, Ind., is notifying patients of a potential exposure to tuberculosis after one of its employees recently tested positive for the disease, the News and Tribune reported Aug. 22.

Nurses are calling on the CDC to strengthen its infection control guidance for hospitals, which has not seen revisions for 16 years, because of concerns the agency might state surgical masks are equal to N95s in infection control measures.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center have identified thousands of genes that are altered in the lungs and kidneys by sepsis, paving the way for treatment and prevention approaches.