Trending News Today: Man Charged with Murder for Infecting Girlfriend with HIV
Top news of the day from across the health care landscape.
An HIV-positive man was charged with murder for the death of longtime girlfriend, Kimberly Klempner, by engaging in unprotected sex, according to International Business Times. Ronald J. Murdock, 51, allegedly withheld his status from his mistress during the period of June 1, 2011, to October 1, 2016. Klempner, who was eventually infected with the virus, died in February 2017. Murdock has been charged with felonious assault and murder. His bond was set at $1.5 million by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Stacy Cook. Murdock is currently being held in the Lucas County jail.
Health care facilities need to increase efforts to provide effective water management programs to prevent disease outbreaks, the CDC said in a report by NPR. In a recent analysis, investigators examined more than 2800 cases of Legionnaires’ disease that occurred in 2015. Legionnaires is a potentially life-threatening form of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria, which can grow in water systems, according to NPR. The results of the study showed that 553 cases definitely or possibly occurred in nursing homes or hospitals, of which, 66 patients deaths were attributed. During 2015, 6079 cases of Legionnaires’ disease occurred nationwide. Of these cases, 2809 occurred in 20 states plus New York City, and 468 may have been associated with health care facilities and 85 definitely were, according to the report. “This analysis has uncovered a problem that is happening every day in health care facilities around the country and something we can do a lot about,” Anne Schuchat, CDC acting director, told NPR. “This report suggests that in many health care facilities, there’s really just an outbreak waiting to happen.”
The World Health Organization updated its Essential Medicines List, with the largest changes occurring in the list’s antibiotics section. According to Medscape, the 3 categories—access, watch, and reserve—were created to guide decisions on when certain antibiotics should be used. The access category indicates drugs with a lower potential for resistance—–such as amoxicillin––and should always be available. “Watch” antibiotics are second-choice treatments that should only be used for a small number of infections. This includes ciprofloxacin, which is used to treat upper respiratory tract infections and uncomplicated cystitis, Medscape reported. The last category, reserve, contains last-resort drugs that should only be used to treat life-threatening infections that involved multidrug-resistant bacteria.
