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Objectives To investigate whether daily bathing with a soap-like solution of 4% chlorhexidine (CHG) followed by water rinsing (CHGwr) would decrease the incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) in intensive care settings. Methods Randomized, controlled trial; infectious diseases specialists were blinded to the intervention status. All patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and to the Post-operative Cardiosurgical Intensive Care Unit (PC-ICU) of the University Hospital of Perugia were enrolled and randomized to the intervention arm (daily bathing with 4% CHGwr) or to the control arm (daily bathing with standard soap). The incidence rate of acquisition of HAI was compared between the two arms as primary outcome. We also evaluated the incidence of bloodstream infections (BSI), central-line-associated BSI (CLABSI), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), and 4% CHGwr safety. Results In all, 449 individuals were enrolled, 226 in treatment arm and 223 in control arm. Thirty-four individuals of the 226 (15%) and 57 (25.6%) suffered from at least an HAI in the intervention and control arms, respectively (p 0.008); 23.2 and 40.9 infections/1000 patient-days were detected in the intervention arm and control arm, respectively (p 0.037). The incidence of all bloodstream infections (BSI plus CABSI) was significantly reduced in the intervention arm (9.2 versus 22.6 infections/1000 patient-days, p 0.027); no differences were observed in the mortality between the two arms. Conclusions Daily bathing with 4% CHGwr significantly reduced HAI incidence in intensive care settings. ClinicalTrial.gov registration NCT03639363.

We discuss observations of open clusters and star forming regions obtained with the RGS and EPIC instruments on board XMM- Newton . These observations provide a powerful tool to investigate the temperature structure, emission measure distribution and elemental abundances of stars from the pre-main sequence phase to post-main sequence evolution. We report in particular on EPIC and RGS spectroscopy of hot and cool stars in the very young cluster around σ Orionis, of two stars in the Hyades (the main-sequence star VB 50 and the clump giant VB 71) and of two pre-main sequence stars in Taurus–Auriga (the classical T Tauri star SU Aur and the weak-lined T Tauri star HD 283572). The implications of these observations for models of magnetic activity in late-type stars, of wind emission in early-type stars, and of X-ray production in the early stages of stellar evolution are briefly discussed.

We present observations of stellar clusters obtained with XMM- Newton as part of the Guaranteed Time program. We have obtained EPIC observations of the open clusters Praesepe, a Per, o Ori and Hyades and of the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region. The results of the analysis are presented and discussed, with emphasis on the imaging data. In all clusters a large number of new X-ray sources with no known catalogued optical counterpart has been detected. In σ Ori three X-ray sources coincide with very-low mass members of the cluster, including a brown dwarf candidate. The Praesepe observation does not show the discrepancy with the Hyades found by ROSAT, supporting the suggestion that this cluster may be formed by two merged clusters of different ages.