BACKGROUND It is known that mobile phones may play a role in microorganism transmission. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between the number of Candida genera/species isolated from samples collected from the surfaces of mobile phones and the hands of the staff as well as the preferred health-related behavior. METHODS The mycological evaluation included 175 mobile telephon...

Three new direct-service staff participated in a program that used a video model to train target skills needed to conduct a discrete-trial session. Percentage accuracy in completing a discrete-trial teaching session was evaluated using a multiple baseline design across participants. During baseline, performances ranged from a mean of 12% to 63% accuracy. During video modeling, there was an imme...

Hospital acquired infections are a problem in both developed and developing countries despite overall progress. It significantly increases the patient’s length of stay in hospital resulting in higher hospital costs. Source of infection may be exogenous such as from the air, medical equipment, hands of surgeons and other staff or endogenous such as the skin flora in the operative site, or rarely...

We did a case-control study in five Hong Kong hospitals, with 241 non-infected and 13 infected staff with documented exposures to 11 index patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) during patient care. All participants were surveyed about use of mask, gloves, gowns, and hand-washing, as recommended under droplets and contact precautions when caring for index patients with SARS. 69 ...

OBJECTIVE This pilot study trialled an in-home videoconferencing system to determine the feasibility of delivering rehabilitation services remotely to aged clients. METHODS Patients approved for community-based transition care were prospectively recruited to trial the eHAB™ video-conferencing system. Staff completed patient logs to record reasons for patient exclusion/inclusion. A staff satis...

An outbreak of Enterobacter cloacae in the neonatal intensive care unit of a provincial hospital in Gauteng, South Africa, resulting in nine deaths was investigated. Macrorestriction analysis using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed that three isolates of E. cloacae from blood cultures of patients, six from environmental sources, and one from the hands of a staff member belonged to the s...

The authors report the results of a project to reemphasize high quality, hands-on laboratory courses in the engineering curriculum while reducing their costs through the application of web-based teaching tools. The project resulted in substantial gains in productivity of faculty and staff, increased utilization of laboratory space, cost reductions in equipment, and improved quality of learning ...