Hygiene

Outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease requires a strong response

New cases and deaths attributable to Ebola virus disease (EVD) continue to be reported by the Ministries of Health in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

NICE sets new guidelines

Pointing out that it is unacceptable that some 300,000 people become adversely infected while being in the care of the UK’s National Health Service every year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care, has launched a new set of quality standards.

Pay-for-performance bites deep

Although nosocomial infections and medical accidents have declined, over 750 hospitals with the highest number of such cases now face penalties – amounting to an estimated $330 million a year – issued by Medicare.

HAI present large economic burden for Ireland

Ahead of the Irish Infection Prevention Control Conference to be held in Portlaoise on 16 May 2014, Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP), a Division of Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, is calling on Irish healthcare practitioners to consider the significant economic burden of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) on hospitals, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the wider…

Article • MEDICA 2013

Two sides of the coin

A one-day course on Infection Prevention and Control (20 November. 9.30 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.) will focus on a vital issue at the Medica Education Conference 2013.

C.diff associated diarrhoea

Diarrhoea caused by Clostridium difficile, which remains an issue in hospital settings, has been the focus of Cochrane Collaboration scientists, who now suggest that taking probiotics at the same time as antibiotics could help to maintain a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut, particularly as antibiotics can disturb the ecosystem of organisms normally present in the digestive system.

Is copper preventing nosocomial infections?

The properties of copper in helping prevent nosocomial infections were debated this October at the Infection Prevention 2013 conference, when Professor Tom Elliott, Consultant Microbiologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, addressed the question: ‘Can the use of copper help prevent infection?’

Tackling MRSA

Decontaminating every patient in an intensive care unit is a far more effective approach to controlling infections in hospitals, according to a new study, Mark Nicholls reports.

Clostridium difficile infection

The realisation that the fight against C. difficile needs its own specific hygiene management dawned relatively recently. Up to the new millennium a common perception regarding European hospital infection prevention and control was that this bacterium was under control; it was considered a marginal phenomenon, which is why C. difficile was not the focus of problematic pathogen monitoring.

The National Health Service Taskforce

A taskforce has been set up in England after it emerged that more than 750 patients had suffered as a result of serious preventable mistakes in hospitals over the past four years.

Hygiene: Back to basics

Two statements from publications by Dr Stephanie Dancer, Department of Microbiology, Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride (UK) prompted Ralf Mateblowski to interview Professor Markus Dettenkofer, Acting Director of the Institute for Environmental Medicine and Hospital Hygiene, Freiburg University Medical Centre about environmental and infection control

Combating surgical infection risks

Shocking: Air quality checks are infrequent and insufficient in operating theatres. The good news: a new device can now measure pathogens circulating during surgical procedures, John Brosky reports

Hospital Build & Infrastructure Europe

Around 2,800 visitors are expected at this year’s international Hospital Build & Infrastructure Europe (HBIE) fair, where presentations will include ‘pioneering healthcare strategies, prudent facility management and new approaches for the sustainable operation of hospitals’ as central themes.

Hygiene: Fighting infections

The motive was clear. Lowering Germany’s comparatively high nosocomial infection rate – the reason for an amendment to the Hygiene Act passed in 2011 – called for improved hygiene management within the hospitals.

Study confirms universal decolonization of ICU patients

Patients' pathogen acquisition was reduced with Chlorhexidine gluconate 2% w/v impregnated pad, and intranasal mupirocin ointment - Study published in New England Journal of Medicine confirms universal decolonization of ICU patients reduces bloodstream infections by 44%.

From bad breath to cardiac infarction

More than half of Germany’s population aged between 18 and 74 years cannot show off a gapless set of teeth, and that’s similar in France and worse only in Poland, according to a 2012 study, which also investigated oral hygiene.

The Robert Koch Foundation announces the 2013 laureates

Robert Koch Award 2013 goes to Jeffrey I. Gordon for pioneering studies of the human microbiome; Anthony S. Fauci receives the Robert Koch Gold Medal 2013 for outstanding scientific contributions to HIV research

The nose knows

Cliff, a two-year-old beagle, has recently demonstrated his talent for detecting Clostridium difficile according to doctors at the Vrije University Medical Centre (VUMC) in Amsterdam.

New price for hospital hygiene und infection prevention

In 2013, the Robert‐Koch‐Stiftung will for the first time award a prize for excellent scientific research and practical measures in the field of hospital hygiene und infection prevention. Healthcare institutions such as hospitals and rehabilitation facilities and research institutes as well as individuals are invited to apply for the prize which is endowed with 50,000 €.

Nosocomial infections

As in so many European countries, nosocomial infections have hit the headlines in Germany over and over again in recent years – as when three premature babies died in a Bremen neonatal clinic in 2011.

C. difficile test guidelines are being ignored

Inadequate testing may mean one of the most common healthcare-acquired infections could go undiagnosed.

Battling against hospital acquired infections

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are among the most common complications during a hospital and care home stay in the West (although they also occur in developing countries, with even an assumed higher incidence), causing enormous strain for those affected as well as high follow-on costs for healthcare systems.