The Maryland Department of Health confirmed its first locally acquired malaria case in more than 40 years. 

Auburn (N.Y.) Community Hospital has restored its universal mask mandate only a month after officially ending the policy, ABC affiliate WSYR reported Aug. 18.

Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., reinstated a mask mandate Aug. 17 amid an uptick in staff out sick with COVID-19 and an increase in patients testing positive, according to local news outlets. 

Cases of Chagas, a disease caused by a parasite, have been steadily rising in the United States, but only 1 percent of cases are estimated to have been identified, NBC News reported Aug. 15.

Becker's has compiled a list of the hospitals with the highest and lowest rates of postoperative sepsis using CMS data released July 26.

It's a good question. 

A new study found two in every five deaths in the Americas involved infection associated with antimicrobial resistance.

Another individual who contracted Klebsiella pneumoniae at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center has died, bringing the total to 10 patient deaths, the hospital confirmed July 27. 

Two patients who stayed in the same Idaho hospital intensive care unit room four months apart contracted the same drug-resistant bacteria, and an investigation by state officials and the CDC found the culprit to be a sink. 

NYC Health + Hospitals led clinicians through a Marburg virus training Aug. 2 to test the health system's "ability to identify and isolate 'patients' with simulated Marburg virus symptoms and safely transport them," using hazmat suits and proper infection protocols, according to a news release shared with Becker's.

Baton Rouge, La.-based Our Lady of the Lake Health has deployed a diagnostic tool capable of detecting sepsis within 10 minutes in the hopes of saving lives from what is often dubbed a "silent killer" in hospital environments — causing 1 in 3 hospital patient deaths. 

At Northwell Health, leaders don't discount the rare causes or sources of hospital-acquired infections.

After dozens of hospitals ended their masking policies, organizations are working to promote masking in healthcare again.

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis created a breath test that can identify people with COVID-19 infections in less than a minute. 

An employee at Columbia-based University of Missouri Health Care has tested positive for tuberculosis, the academic health system said July 27. 

A new anesthesiologist-led approach to reducing surgical site infections and length of hospital stays in colorectal patients resulted in a 50 percent decrease in infection instances and a 46 percent decrease in stay length, according to new research from Austin Street, MD, study author and anesthesiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas and presented to the American Society of Anesthesiologists at a recent meeting. 

VCU researchers found that loss of smell and taste are no longer common symptoms of COVID-19.

Antibiotic resistance may be even more likely for patients infected with mixed strain pathogens, according to a report published July 12 in Nature.

Hospital leaders and health officials are still searching for the cause of a bacterial outbreak that has killed nine patients at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center.

Experts from five national medical groups partnered to revise infection prevention strategies in acute care settings, which were published July 11 in the Journal of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.