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Public health concerns such as multi- and extensive drug-resistant tuberculosis, bioterrorism, pandemic influenza, and severe acute respiratory syndrome have intensified efforts to prevent transmission of infections that are completely or partially airborne using environmental controls. One such control, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), has received renewed interest after decades of underutilization and neglect. With renewed interest, however, come renewed questions, especially regarding efficacy and safety. There is a long history of investigations concluding that, if used properly, UVGI can be safe and highly effective in disinfecting the air, thereby preventing transmission of a variety of airborne infections. Despite this long history, many infection control professionals are not familiar with the history of UVGI and how it has, and has not, been used safely and effectively. This article reviews that history of UVGI for air disinfection, starting with its biological basis, moving to its application in the real world, and ending with its current status.

Drawing on institutional historical records, interviews and student theses, this article charts the intersection of hospital acquired illness, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), environments of armed conflict, and larger questions of social governance in the specific case of the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Lebanon. Taking a methodological cue from approaches in contemporary scientific work that understand non-clinical settings as a fundamental aspect of the history and development of AMR, we treat the hospital as not just nested in a set of social and environmental contexts, but frequently housing within itself elements of social and environmental history. AMR in Lebanon differs in important ways from the settings in which global protocols for infection control or rubrics for risk factor identification for resistant nosocomial outbreaks were originally generated. While such differences are all too often depicted as failures of low and middle-income countries (LMIC) to maintain universal standards, the historical question before us is quite the reverse: how have the putatively universal rubrics of AMR and hospital infection control failed to take account of social and environmental conditions that clearly matter deeply in the evolution and spread of resistance? Focusing on conditions of war as an organized chaos in which social, environmental and clinical factors shift dramatically, on the social and political topography of patient transfer, and on a missing “meso” level of AMR surveillance between the local and global settings, we show how a multisectoral One Health approach to AMR could be enriched by an answering multisectoral methodology in history, particularly one that unsettles a canonical focus on the story of AMR in the Euro-American context.

A US army-wide measles outbreak in 1917–18 resulted in more than 95 000 cases and more than 3000 deaths. An outbreak investigation implicated measles and streptococcal co-infections in most deaths, and also characterised a parallel epidemic of primary streptococcal pneumonia in soldiers without measles. For the first time, the natural history and pathogenesis of these diseases was able to be well characterised by a broad-interdisciplinary research effort with hundreds of military and civilian physicians and scientists representing disciplines such as internal medicine, pathology, microbiology, radiology, surgery, preventive medicine, and rehabilitation medicine. A clear conceptualisation of bronchopneumonia resulting from viral–bacterial interactions between pathogens was developed, and prevention and treatment approaches were developed and optimised in real time. These approaches were used in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which began as the measles epidemic waned. The outbreak findings remain relevant to the understanding and medical management of severe pneumonia.

In 1867, Joseph Lister first published an account of his use of carbolic acid in a series of articles on preventing wound infections in compound fractures and abscesses.2 3 However, his theory of aseptic techniques was mocked and widely criticised in his early career; an article published in 1873 warned the medical profession against Lister's ideas of antiseptics.4 Despite the negative comments and responses from the medical field, Lister believed in his theory and persevered.5 After many more publications and meetings, his theory of antiseptic surgery was eventually adopted. In 1847, his findings were published, showing that when doctors washed their hands before examining patients, the mortality rate for women in his obstetrics ward was greatly reduced.8He also published a number of studies showing that hand washing could reduce mortality to below 1%. In mid-April, Singapore made it mandatory to wear a mask when stepping out of the house.10 Other virus-control methods are also important, not least hand washing, as well as social distancing, quarantines, school closures, and restrictions on travel and mass gatherings.11 It is difficult to identify whether one measure is more effective than another in supressing virus transmission, and most likely these measures add up synergistically.

On the centenary of Joseph Lister's death, it is appropriate to remember and honour his remarkable accomplishments that earned him the title \"father of modern surgery.\" 9 references

Last year, Jean-Laurent Casanova published a landmark article in Science demonstrating that a child had life-threatening influenza because of genetic loss of interferon regulatory factor 7. This article provided the first evidence that severe influenza could be due to mutations in genes encoding factors that are specifically required for responding to influenza infection rather than mutations that cause a general immunodeficiency. The study followed on two decades of research from Dr. Casanova's laboratory demonstrating that individual cases of severe infection can result from an underlying human genetic defect in a number of different infectious diseases. With this year's Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award, the ASCI recognizes Jean-Laurent Casanova's pioneering work in the field of human genetics of infectious diseases. The JCI recently had the opportunity to speak with him about the prize and his research accomplishments.

Hand hygiene is the single most important intervention for reducing healthcare associated infections and preventing the spread of antimicrobial resistance. This sentence begins most publications regarding hand hygiene in the medical literature. But why - as we mark 150 years since the publication of Ignaz Semmelweis' landmark monograph on the subject - do we continue to repeat it? One might be tempted to regard it as a truism. However, while tremendous progress has certainly been made in this field, a significant amount of work is yet to be done in both strengthening the evidence regarding the impact of hand hygiene and maximizing its implementation. Hand hygiene cannot yet be taken for granted. This article summarizes historical perspectives, dynamics of microbial colonization and efficacy of hand cleansing methods and agents, elements and impacts of successful hand hygiene promotion, as well as scale-up and sustainability. We also explore hand hygiene myths and current challenges such as monitoring, behavior change, patient participation and research priorities.

The influenza pandemic that ravaged the planet in 1918-1919 is, undoubtedly, the most virulent and lethal infectious disease that the human species has ever overcome. This essay was to evaluate the medical interpretation of this phenomenon and the response given by doctors in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic technology based on the data published in the medical literature of two of the most important journals of the time, BMJ (The British Medical Journal) and JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association). It was found that the arsenal of knowledge, diagnosis and therapeutics of the time offered very few tools to address clinical management and curb contagion and mortality. However, the difficulties that clinicians and health authorities had to overcome were a solid incentive to make significant progress in the understanding and management of infectious diseases, particularly of viral etiology, in a short period of time.