Evidence to inform decontamination practices at Ebola holding units (EHUs) and treatment centres is lacking. We conducted an audit of decontamination procedures inside Connaught Hospital EHU in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by assessing environmental swab specimens for evidence of contamination with Ebola virus by RT-PCR. Swabs were collected following discharge of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) patients ...

The binding specificity and affinity of aptamers have long been harnessed as the key elements in the development of aptamer-based assays, particularly aptasensing application. One promising avenue that is currently explored based on the specificity and affinity of aptamers is the application of aptamers in the decontamination assays. Aptamers have been successfully harnessed as the decontaminat...

INTRODUCTION Mechanically ventilated critically ill patients frequently develop ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), a life-threatening complication. Proposed preventive measures against VAP include, but are not restricted to, selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD), selective oropharyngeal decontamination (SOD) and the use of probiotics. Probiotics are live bacteria that could...

Concerns have been raised regarding the availability of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-certified N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during an influenza pandemic. One possible strategy to mitigate a respirator shortage is to reuse FFRs following a biological decontamination process to render infectious material on the FFR inactive. However, little data exis...

UNLABELLED In accord with as-low-as-reasonably-achievable and good-manufacturing-practice concepts, the present study evaluated the efficiency of radioactivity decontamination of materials commonly used in laboratory surfaces and whether solvent spills on these materials affect the findings. METHODS Four materials were evaluated: stainless steel, a surface comprising one-third acrylic resin a...

BACKGROUND The decision to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in a field raises ethical as well as scientific issues. From the clinical equipoise literature, future trials are justifiable if there is "honest, professional disagreement in the community of expert practitioners as to the preferred treatment". Empirical data are sparse about how clinicians apply the principles of equipoise...

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate how the results of a meta-analysis can confuse rather than clarify therapeutic dilemmas if clinical heterogeneity among trials is ignored. Then to further discuss the qualities emergency physicians should expect from published meta-analyses if they are to affect clinical practice. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The data and results were examined from 23 randomised controlled tr...

BACKGROUND Among methods for preventing pneumonia and possibly also bacteremia in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, Selective Digestive Decontamination (SDD) appears most effective within randomized concurrent controlled trials (RCCT's) although more recent trials have been cluster randomized. However, of the SDD components, whether protocolized parenteral antibiotic prophylaxis (PPAP) is req...

The effect of a selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) regimen including polymyxin and tobramycin on several body site reservoirs was compared between a test group and a control group in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with faecal multi-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii colonization. SDD significantly reduced faecal and pharyngeal carriage when compared with the control group...