Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety

Download the "Days Since Infection" Poster here.

View the recording from the June 19 "Environmental Decontamination" webinar here.

NTDS Project Mission Statement

To enhance the quality of life for people with kidney failure by engaging nephrologists as team leaders in transformational change that continuously improves the safety of life sustaining dialysis.

Spotlight: Flu Season is Here

What felt like a miserable flu season this past year was, in fact, a miserable flu season.

The 2017–2018 influenza season was classified in the "high severity" category overall, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was only the third use of this designation since 2003.

Last season's flu vaccine was about 36 percent effective overall, but only 25 percent against the predominant viruses from the H3N2 subtype of influenza A. However, even in years of low effectiveness, the flu vaccine is still the best protection against the illness, the CDC says (SN: 10/28/17, p. 18). The agency has yet to release estimates on how many illnesses were avoided this season because of vaccine use, but says vaccination prevented an estimated 5.29 million illnesses during the 2016–2017 season. (Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/if-you-thought-most-recent-flu-season-was-bad-you-were-right)

October 15 is Global Handwashing Day!

For tools and resources, click here.

Promising Practice: KDIGO Announces Publication of the Hepatitis C Guideline Update

Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) announces the publication of its latest guideline update on the Prevention, Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of Hepatitis C in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The full-text guideline now appears in the October issue of Kidney International Supplements with an executive summary publishing in the accompanying issue of Kidney International. This guideline replaces the version first published by KDIGO in 2008, and both publications are now available on the KDIGO website.

Featured Partner: World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations' system.

Among its important work, the WHO monitors disease outbreaks. For more information about the recent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, click here.