Aaron Milstone

Aaron Milstone, M.D. ’00, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Caroline B. Hall Clinical Research Innovation Award of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society Education and Research Foundation. Milstone, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, is being honored for leading a landmark study on reducing blood-stream infections in critically ill children with the use of daily antiseptic baths. A report describing results of the multicenter research appeared in January in the prestigious British journal The Lancet.

Milstone’s study, conducted in five pediatric hospitals and including more than 4,000 children, showed that daily baths with an ordinary antibacterial cleanser can safely reduce the risk of dangerous bloodstream infections in critically ill children. The study compared standard soap baths with antiseptic baths with diluted chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG), a commonly used cleanser that kills viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Children bathed with the antiseptic solution had a 36 percent lower risk of bloodstream infections, compared with those given soap-and-water baths. Traditionally, bedside bathing has been viewed as nothing more than a comfort measure, but the study findings showed that the simple, often overlooked, procedure can also be a powerful infection-prevention tool. The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center initiated antibacterial baths in its intensive-care unit as an infection-control measure in 2011.

The award was presented in San Francisco in October during IDWeek, an annual meeting of infectious diseases specialists and hospital epidemiologists.