There is evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected mental health, but most studies have been conducted in the general population.

To identify factors associated with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in individuals with pre-existing mental illness.

Participants (N = 2869, 78% women, ages 18–94 years) from a UK cohort (the National Centre for Mental Health) with a history of mental illness completed a cross-sectional online survey in June to August 2020. Mental health assessments were the GAD-7 (anxiety), PHQ-9 (depression) and WHO-5 (well-being) questionnaires, and a self-report question on whether their mental health had changed during the pandemic. Regressions examined associations between mental health outcomes and hypothesised risk factors. Secondary analyses examined associations between specific mental health diagnoses and mental health.

A total of 60% of participants reported that mental health had worsened during the pandemic. Younger age, difficulty accessing mental health services, low income, income affected by COVID-19, worry about COVID-19, reduced sleep and increased alcohol/drug use were associated with increased depression and anxiety symptoms and reduced well-being. Feeling socially supported by friends/family/services was associated with better mental health and well-being. Participants with a history of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or eating disorder were more likely to report that mental health had worsened during the pandemic than individuals without a history of these diagnoses.

We identified factors associated with worse mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in individuals with pre-existing mental illness, in addition to specific groups potentially at elevated risk of poor mental health during the pandemic.

Investigate an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among operating room staff utilizing contact tracing, mass testing for severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and environmental sampling.

Outbreak investigation.

University-affiliated tertiary-care referral center.

Operating room staff with positive SARS-CoV-2 molecular testing.

Epidemiologic and environmental investigations were conducted including contact tracing, environmental surveys, and sampling and review of the operating room schedule for staff-to-staff, staff-to-patient, and patient-to-staff SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

In total, 24 healthcare personnel (HCP) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, including nurses (29%), surgical technologists (25%), and surgical residents (16%). Moreover, 19 HCP (79%) reported having used a communal area, most commonly break rooms (75%). Overall, 20 HCP (83%) reported symptomatic disease. In total, 72 environmental samples were collected from communal areas for SARS-CoV-2 genomic testing; none was positive. Furthermore, 236 surgical cases were reviewed for transmission: 213 (90%) had negative preoperative SARS-CoV-2 testing, 21 (9%) had a positive test on or before the date of surgery, and 2 (<1%) did not have a preoperative test performed. In addition, 40 patients underwent postoperative testing (mean, 13 days to postoperative testing), and 2 returned positive results. Neither of these 2 cases was linked to our outbreak.

Complacency in infection control practices among staff during peak community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is believed to have driven staff-to-staff transmission. Prompt identification of the outbreak led to rapid interventions, ultimately allowing for uninterrupted surgical service.

To examine the use of vitamin D supplements during infancy among the participants in an international infant feeding trial.

Longitudinal study.

Information about vitamin D supplementation was collected through a validated FFQ at the age of 2 weeks and monthly between the ages of 1 month and 6 months.

Infants (n 2159) with a biological family member affected by type 1 diabetes and with increased human leucocyte antigen-conferred susceptibility to type 1 diabetes from twelve European countries, the USA, Canada and Australia.

Daily use of vitamin D supplements was common during the first 6 months of life in Northern and Central Europe (>80 % of the infants), with somewhat lower rates observed in Southern Europe (>60 %). In Canada, vitamin D supplementation was more common among exclusively breast-fed than other infants (e.g. 71 % v. 44 % at 6 months of age). Less than 2 % of infants in the USA and Australia received any vitamin D supplementation. Higher gestational age, older maternal age and longer maternal education were study-wide associated with greater use of vitamin D supplements.

Most of the infants received vitamin D supplements during the first 6 months of life in the European countries, whereas in Canada only half and in the USA and Australia very few were given supplementation.

To evaluate three different DNA techniques for typing nonfermentative gram-negative bacilli isolated from Latin American hospitals.

One hundred twenty-six nonfermentative gram-negative bacilli were typed.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 64) and Acinetobacter baumannii (n = 42) samples were obtained from blood cultures of patients admitted to 10 medical centers in Latin America during 1998 and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (n = 20) samples were obtained from patients admitted to the Hospital São Paulo between 1999 and 2001.

All samples were typed using automated ribotyping, PFGE, and ERIC-PCR. The discriminatory power for each technique was calculated using Hunter's generalized formula.

All strains could be typed by automated ribotyping and ERIC-PCR, but two strains (1.6%) were not typeable by PFGE. All three techniques showed 100% reproducibility. The time to obtain the results was shorter for automated ribotyping and ERIC-PCR compared with PFGE. Likewise, the costs for ERIC-PCR and PFGE were lower than those for automated ribotyping. The interpretation of results was more complicated and more difficult with ERIC-PCR than with both PFGE and automated ribotyping. All techniques presented excellent discriminatory power for P. aeruginosa (0.98). PFGE presented the highest discriminatory power (0.94) for A. baumannii, and both PFGE and ERIC-PCR showed higher discriminatory power (0.90 for both) than automated ribotyping (0.82) for S. maltophilia.

PFGE showed the highest discriminatory power for typing these nonfermentative gram-negative bacilli. However, automated ribotyping and ERIC-PCR can provide results in a shorter time period with similar discriminatory power.

To describe the molecular epidemiology of Legionella pneumophila infections in the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC).

Molecular epidemiological study using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).

A large university teaching hospital.

All surviving isolates obtained from culture-proven nosocomial L pneumophila infections and all surviving isolates obtained from the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics' water supply between 1981 and 1993.

Thirty-three isolates from culture-proven nosocomial cases of L pneumophila pneumonia were available for typing. PFGE of genomic DNA from the clinical isolates identified six different strains. However, only strain C (16 cases) and strain D (13 cases) caused more than 1 case. Strain C caused clusters of nosocomial infection in 1981, 1986, and 1993 and also caused 4 sporadic cases. Strain D caused a cluster in 1987 and 1988 plus 4 sporadic cases. Of the six strains causing clinical infections, only strains C and D were identified in water samples. PFGE identified three strains in the water supply, of which strains C and D caused clinical disease and also persisted in the water supply during most of the study period.

Specific strains of L pneumophila can colonize hospital water supplies and cause nosocomial infections over long periods of time.

To report an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in our burn unit and the steps we used to eradicate the organism.

Outbreak investigation in the burn unit of a 900-bed tertiary-care medical center.

Between March and June 1993, MRSA was isolated from 10 patients in our burn unit. All isolates had identical antibiograms and chromosomal DNA patterns.

Infection control personnel encouraged healthcare workers to wash their hands after each patient contact. The unit cohorted all infected or colonized patients, placed each affected patient in isolation, and, if possible, transferred the patient to another unit. Despite these measures, new cases occurred. Infection control personnel obtained nares cultures from 56 healthcare workers, 3 of whom carried the epidemic MRSA strain. One healthcare worker cared for six affected patients, and one cared for five patients. We treated the three healthcare workers with mupirocin. Subsequently, no additional patients became colonized or infected with the epidemic MRSA strain.

The outbreak ended after we treated healthcare workers who carried the epidemic strain with mupirocin. This approach is not appropriate in all settings. However, we felt it was justified in this case because of a persistent problem after less intrusive measures.

To investigate a cluster of Serratia odorifera in a cardiothoracic surgery unit (CTSU) and to evaluate the applicability of three typing methods for this species.

During a surveillance surgical wound study, S odorifera was isolated from two patients in the CTSU. The patients' hospital charts were reviewed for the details of surgery and for common personnel, procedures, or medications. Cultures were obtained of water, soap, and unit dose medications from the CTSU, the operating room, and the surgical intensive care unit. The isolates' antibiograms, biotypes (Vitek identification card and API 20E), and patterns of chromosomal DNA (chrDNA) by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were examined. S odorifera isolates from our organism collection were used as controls.

A 900-bed university hospital with a 22-bed CISU.

ChrDNA patterns of isolates from the two patients were identical, suggesting a possible nosocomial source. However, no source of organisms or mode of transmission was identified. Neither biotype nor antibiogram were useful for epidemiologically typing S odorifera, and PFGE was necessary to discriminate among isolates.

Although rarely isolated, S odorifera and other non- marcescens Serratia species may cause nosocomial outbreaks. PFGE of chrDNA seems to be a reliable method for epidemiologically typing this species.

To investigate the possibility of interhospital spread of multiresistant Staphylococcus aureus in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

We evaluated 13 nosocomial S aureus strains selected because of resistance to oxacillin and ciprofloxacin.

The strains were collected between March 1991 and September 1991 from four hospitals in Sao Paulo. Two were teaching hospitals, and two were private hospitals.

Each strain was isolated from a different patient. All patients were hospitalized when the strains were isolated.

The strains were typed by restriction endonuclease analyses of plasmid DNA (REAP) using EcoRI, HindIII, RsaI, and Alu1 and by extended antibiogram profile (34 drugs).

All strains had identical plasmid and antibiogram profile. They demonstrated the same plasmid pattern as previously described in one of the hospitals studied.

Our results suggest the dissemination of a unique oxacillin- and quinolone-resistant strain of S aureus in several hospitals of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

To investigate trends in plasmid types of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus over a 3-year period and determine the clinical impact of plasmid typing.

Restriction endonuclease analysis of plasmid DNA (REAP) was used to type 270 clinical isolates.

A Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Forty-four different REAP types were identified and, of these, 23 appeared only once. Types designed as V1 and V2 were more commonly found in nosocomial cases than in community-acquired cases (p<.05); whereas the K and D types were more common in isolates from community-acquired cases (<c.05). In 30 (11%) isolates, no plasmid was detected. When combined with epidemiological data, REAP typing revealed 4 small outbreaks that would have been missed using traditional epidemiological methods alone. In large outbreaks involving 10 or more cases, REAP typing data revealed unsuspected patterns of transmission.

Multiple plasmid types were present in this endemic setting. Restriction endonuclease analysis of plasmid DNA was a practical and valuable adjunct to traditional epidemiological methods.