(c) Pixabay (Jerzy Gorecki)
Antibiotic Resistance is the resistance of bacteria and fungi to antibiotics. In nature, antibiotic substances are produced by microorganisms in order to displace competitors. These develop resistance to these substances, which they can quickly pass on to the entire surviving population due to their high reproduction rate. Pathogens also evolve resistance according to the same pattern – the antibiotics in question are then no longer effective in therapy.
One of the most important causes is the hasty prescription of antibiotics. For example, antibiotics are often prescribed for bronchitis, although these infections are almost always viral – and antibiotics have no effect at all against viruses. Even worse, bacteria in the body develop resistances when used repeatedly and on a broad scale, so that drugs no longer work in case of emergency. In addition, antibiotics are not completely degraded in the body but excreted and thus reach nature via the wastewater, where the microorganisms form new resistances. Such resistant organisms may return to humans via the natural cycle – with dangerous consequences.
Also, the widespread habit of many patients to discontinue antibiotic therapy prematurely, since a clear improvement of their symptoms has already occurred, leads to the same result – resistant germs are virtually cultivated.
Furthermore, there is another, but not less important area of concern: agriculture. The use of antibiotics in animal fattening (prophylactically and as growth promoters) and the spreading of slurry from these farms have led to a further increase in resistance.
If a decease occurs, it initially proceeds like an infection with “normal” pathogens, which means it also shows the same symptoms, e.g. dermatitis such as ulcers or pus accumulation, wound infections, especially after operations and inflammations of individual organs, such as urinary tract infections, pneumonia or bloodstream infections. Due to the existing antibiotic resistance, however, such infections (especially in septicaemia) are much more difficult to treat with medication, so that the disease can be life-threatening.
The determination of Antibiotic Resistance is carried out in a laboratory using standardized methods. The results, the so called biogram, are then used by the treating physician to develop a treatment strategy. This often requires the use of reserve antibiotics. These frequently have considerable side effects and are therefore only used in extreme emergencies.
The public, prescribing physicians, politicians, the pharmaceutical industry and livestock farming all have an equally important role to play in curbing Antibiotic Resistance. For the successful control it requires a comprehensive and coordinated national approach. According to the WHO, this should include the following elements:
Read more
WHO (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antibiotic-resistance)
A bloodstream infection is an infectious disease. There are different types of bloodstream infections, since bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites can get into the bloodstream.
The bacterial blood infection (bacteremia) occurs when bacteria have entered the bloodstream. They can travel to organs and tissues and cause harm. Bacteremia can occur when your immune system is weak, but also after a recent surgery. Symptoms include high temperature, shivering, fatigue and rapid breathing.
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Viremia is the viral blood infection. Viruses can, among others, be inhaled (if someone next to you sneezes) or swallowed (e.g. food, water). When the virus has entered the bloodstream, it can get into almost every tissue in the body. The symptoms vary, depending on the organism which is affected by the infection.
Fungemia, the fungal blood infection, is caused by a fungus, which is a microorganism that lives on the skin or in the gastrointestinal tract. It can exist without causing any harm. But when entering the bloodstream, it can lead to a life-threatening infection. This can have various reasons, e.g. when using a central venous catheter, when a person has a weak immune system or when a patient has kidney failure or diabetes.
When a parasite has entered the bloodstream (parasitic blood infection), it can affect not only the blood, but also organs. One example is Malaria, which is caused by mosquitoes.
People with a BSI can be split in three groups: patients with intact defenses, people whose defense is impaired (newborns and the elderly) and patients who have pathological or pharmacological conditions prone to infections.
Septicemia is known as blood poisoning, which is a serious bloodstream infection. It occurs when a bacterial infection (e.g. of the lung) enters the bloodstream, which is dangerous because the infection can be dispersed in the whole body through the bloodstream. Sepsis is also caused by infections, a sepsis is a complication of septicemia. It causes inflammation in the body, which can lead to organ failure.
The treatment depends on the type of infection. When there is a bacterial blood infection, an antimicrobial therapy is started. In addition, surgical treatment like e.g. removal of intravascular devices can be necessary.
When it comes to fungi, specific medication is subscribed. In case of a sepsis, intravenous anti-fungal drugs are necessary. Some types of viral bloodstream infections can be treated with antiviral medicine. In order to avoid a specific virus from the beginning, vaccination is a good way of prevention.
Personal items such as toothbrushes, towels, razors and nail clippers should not be shared hence they can transmit infections. Bacteremia can be avoided with a good excellent? hygiene practice. Hand washing after sneezing or coughing, before and after preparing food or caring for someone, who is sick, is crucial.
When an indwelling central venous catheter is used in hospital, catheter choice and location, insertion technique and catheter maintenance are important factors which determine whether a person gets infected or not. To avoid infection, catheters should be impregnated with antibiotics or antiseptics.
Without dialysis, thousands of patients with kidney problems could not survive – but with it, many things in life change. Dialysis is a blood purification procedure. If, in the event of illness, the kidneys are no longer able to perform this task themselves, a so-called “kidney replacement therapy” takes over their function. The term is derived from the Greek word dialysis, which means dissolution, separation. This method, also known as artificial blood washing, can remove excess water and harmful substances such as the so-called urinary substances from the body.
(c) Freepik | Jcomb
In hemodialysis, an external device washes the patient’s blood. The filter system removes toxic substances, excess water and nutrients from the blood for about four hours. In return, the acid-base balance is balanced and hormones and iron are added to the purified blood before it flows back into the body through the tube and cannula, about 250 millilitres per minute.
Peritoneal dialysis is another option. In this procedure, the body’s own peritoneum is used as a filter. About two litres of a sterile fluid are fed into the abdominal cavity. Toxins from the blood then migrate through the peritoneum into the dialysis solution. After a few hours, the solution is saturated and is drained via a catheter tube on the abdomen.
Kidney diseases are usually a step-by-step process that is divided into five stages. When the disease reaches the fifth stage, the damage to the kidneys is so severe that dialysis often has to be started. However, doctors generally try to preserve the natural filtering function of the kidneys for as long as possible. Therefore, in the early stages of kidney disease, you may be helped by administering certain medications or omitting kidney toxic drugs.
It is important to adhere to hygiene measures – whether in hospital or during home haemodialysis (which is very rarely used, as it requires the purchase of special equipment for use at home).
Kidneys are considered to be the body’s sewage treatment plant, but this is not quite true. Cleaning is only one of several tasks they perform, and they are already more thorough than any device could ever be. They also produce hormones for blood formation, regulate blood pressure and control the mineral balance.
Congenital problems are rarely the cause. Much more often, it is inadequately treated diabetes, high blood pressure or arteriosclerosis that weaken the organs and can lead to end-stage renal failure.
However, in the case of acute kidney failure, for example due to sepsis or severe injury (trauma), the kidneys often resume their function after some time. In this case, doctors only have to use blood washing temporarily.
So-called lifestyle factors such as smoking, overweight and some medications can accelerate the loss of kidney function. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle seems to have some influence on the kidneys in any case. If the kidney function goes downhill at first, this cannot be reversed with medication. Long-term elevated blood sugar levels can damage the blood vessels in the kidneys, where the filtering process takes place. Diabetes patients with damaged kidneys must pay attention to good blood pressure and blood sugar levels and should stop smoking
As the name implies, acquired infections are transmitted in hospitals or other healthcare facilities such as rehabilitation centres or nursing homes, where the patient’s immune system is weak and more sensitive to infections. HAI often occur in intensive care units. Therefore, they are also referred to as health care-associated infections (HCAI), because they do not only present themselves in hospitals.
(c) freepik
One in 10 patients is infected with HAI. It is more common in developing countries, and more than 40% of hospital stays in Latin America and Asia lead to HAI. This is associated with costs and increased mortality.
Infections can be acquired outside the healthcare facility, caused by other patients, nurses or even the patient’s own skin, if the microorganism breaks through the skin barrier. There are several ways to transmit HAI. For example, via laundry, air, contaminated equipment, personnel or – as mentioned above – the patient’s own skin.
The most common transmission is direct contact or droplets that change the host by talking or sneezing and coughing. Microorganisms transmitted by air are Legionella, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Rubella and Varicella. They can travel long distances because they are carried by the air stream and then accidentally inhaled by another person. But there are also contact infections caused by equipment, apparatus or other people and by infectious food via the gastrointestinal tract. Insects can carry microorganisms, too.
Symptoms vary from type to type, but usually a patient develops SSI, meningitis, pneumonia or urinary tract infections. HAI can also cause fever, shortness of breath, headaches, diarrhoea, nausea and leakage of wound secretion.
There are two infections that patients usually suffer from: Gram-positive strains of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative Acinetobacter baumannii. While MRSA is quite easy to treat, only a handful of effective antibiotics are available to treat Acinetobacter baumannii. In the worst case, infected persons have to be isolated in order to prevent further infection.
Irrespective of the type of infection, it is recommended to take QA/QC measures, continuously monitor air quality in the premises, hygiene protocols and guidelines for sterilization of instruments, hand hygiene, surface cleaning and the use of antibiotics, alcoholic rub-in preparations and hot water treatment. These steps can reduce the risk of HAI by 70%.
To cut a long story short: the answer is hospital hygiene.
Patients should be encouraged to inform staff of any complaints and symptoms. Staff and, in certain cases, visitors should also be encouraged to disinfect their hands properly.
(c) Pixabay – Caniceus
Hand hygiene is a way of cleaning one’s hands that substantially reduces potential pathogens (harmful microorganisms). It is a primary measure for reducing the risk of transmitting infections among patients and health care personnel. The most important elements of hand hygiene include hand disinfection, the correct use of examination and protective gloves and the correct placement of dispensers.
Hand hygiene is the single most effective method of decreasing nosocomial infections. Its aim is to prevent the transmission of microorganisms to patients through hand contact or during operations by the surgeon. When carried out properly, disinfection reduces the number of microorganisms to such a low level that they can usually no longer cause an infection. Most microorganisms can be safely and reliably killed or inactivated with common disinfectants. The effectiveness of the disinfectant depends on the type, concentration and exposure time and the number of germs.
Which methods for hand hygiene should be applied?
Washing hands with soap and water is required several times during the day and whenever they are visibly dirty, after using the restroom, after caring for a person with known or suspected infectious diarrhea, after known or suspected exposure to spores (e.g. B. anthracis, C difficile outbreaks), and before eating.
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are the most effective products for reducing the number of germs on the hands of healthcare providers and are the method for cleaning hands in most clinical situations. These involve touching a patient, performing an aseptic task (e.g. dressing changes or attaching an infusion) or handling invasive medical devices, moving from work on a soiled body site to a clean body site on the same patient, touching a patient or the patient’s immediate environment, after contact with blood, body fluids or contaminated surfaces, and immediately after glove removal.
When is it important to wear gloves?
Gloves are not a substitute for hand hygiene. They are categorized into three groups: sterile and non-sterile examination gloves, sterile surgical gloves and protective gloves for the administration of chemotherapy. Examination gloves and protective gloves are mainly used for self-protection. It is important to perform hand hygiene prior to putting gloves on as well as immediately after taking them off. After use they have to be disposed of without contaminating other objects or persons.
Why are skin and nail care important?
To ensure skin health despite cleaning one’s hands frequently it is important to use hand lotions and creams. But only products approved by healthcare facilities will assure they won’t interfere with hand sanitizing products.
It is recommended that fingernails are kept short. Wearing artificial fingernails or extensions is a considerable risk because germs can live under artificial fingernails both before and after using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer and handwashing.
Also rings, bracelets, wristwatches or piercings provide hiding places for pathogens that cannot be reached by the hand disinfectant.
What are the “Five Moments for Hand Hygiene”?
The WHO guideline “Five Moments for Hand Hygiene” offers a concise summary of the key measures which assure maximum protection against transmission of pathogens:
Read more:
WHO Guidelines to Hand Hygiene in Health Care: https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/tools/9789241597906/en/
5 Moments of Hand Hygiene: https://www.who.int/gpsc/tools/Five_moments/en/
In intensive care units, invasive diagnostic and therapeutic measures are particularly common, which in turn facilitate the penetration of microorganisms into the patient’s body. In addition, the immune system of these patients is severely weakened by severe underlying diseases, polytrauma, long-term ventilation, burns or organ transplantation, etc. Multidrug-resistant pathogens are being isolated with increasing frequencies in ICUs, efficient hygiene measures to minimize nosocomial infections are therefore an absolute necessity.
(c) Pixabay | Parentingupstream
Effective programs are usually based on the cooperation of the intensive care physician, the infectious disease specialist, the microbiologist, and the clinical epidemiologist. The infectious disease specialist develops specific guidelines for the antimicrobial therapy of typical infections which minimize the selective pressure for microorganisms within the ICU. The microbiologist provides rapid and accurate diagnosis of the pathogens involved. The clinical epidemiologist identifies epidemics at early stages, using epidemiological tools and molecular typing methods, as well as summarizing trends of antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and setting standards for isolation practices.
A simple way to reduce nosocomial infections in ICUs is to ensure that staff disinfect their hands after dealing with a patient, which is also necessary, if gloves (sterile or non-sterile) are worn, as gloves do not provide absolute protection. Intravascular devices, mechanical ventilation and urinary catheterization are major risk factors for nosocomial infections, and their use should be evaluated daily and discontinued as soon as clinically possible. Cleaning and disinfection of the surroundings (surface disinfection) as well as of beds and laundry is equally important.
The size of an intensive care unit should be at least 16 sqm to make aseptic work possible. Patients with multi-resistant pathogens or infectious diseases must be isolated in single rooms.
What hygienic precautions must be taken by visitors?
Whenever entering and leaving the ward thorough cleaning of the hands (washing them with soap and drying them carefully) and subsequent hand disinfection as well as wearing a plastic apron are necessary to prevent the spread of germs. There should never be more than two visitors to a patient at the same time, and for hygienic reasons, no potted plants or flowers are allowed in the ICU.
Read more:
Robert Koch Institut: https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/Infekt/Krankenhaushygiene/Kommission/kommission_node.html
WHO: https://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s16355e/s16355e.pdf
What is that?
Tons of dirty laundry are produced in hospitals and health care facilities every day. The spectrum ranges from simply soiled medical gown to contaminated surgical linen or bed linen contaminated with infectious agents. Therefore, it is a crucial point of daily hospital hygiene and an essential part of the supply and disposal structure in health care facilities. The most important thing is to comply with specially drawn up guidelines.
(c) Freepik | Drobotdean
Why is this important?
Handling dirty laundry entails the risk of spreading the pathogens outside the hospital. Especially laundry that has come into contact with particularly infectious diseases (e.g. anthrax, pneumonic plague, Lassa fever) should be treated separately as special laundry. This is disposable laundry, which is disposed of in a controlled manner after use.
The remaining laundry is then taken over by adequately equipped laundry service. Until the laundry arrives there, it also has to be handled with special care in order to protect the hospital staff and the transport staff.
When the laundry is clean, it has to be kept sterile and aseptic during transport back to the hospital as well.
What if that is ignored?
During the entire cleaning process, from the collection to the delivery of the clean laundry, it is essential to ensure strict compliance with hygiene rules. Otherwise, there is a potential risk to the health of everyone involved. The circle of people is wide, ranging from the hospital staff who prepare the used textiles for removal, to the laundry staff and finally the patients. People in hospitals usually have a weakened immune system, which may react to germs in the laundry much stronger than it does with healthy people.
How should it be done?
In order to achieve the goal of germ-free laundry, all persons involved follow a precise procedure. The transport personnel take over the already sorted laundry, because in the hospital laundry the dirty clothes are not taken into their hands if possible.
Hospital laundry is divided into a clean laundry area and an unclean laundry area. Both are hermetically separated from each other to prevent mixing. Specially marked transport systems are used in these areas. The same transport containers are still used for transporting laundry in both directions. In this case, strict care needs to be taken to ensure that the laundry is completely disinfected before transporting it back to the hospital.
Laundries working for hospitals and health care facilities have to comply with a variety of regulations. For example, the dirty laundry area has to be physically separated from the clean laundry area.
Of course, the cleaning process is the main focus. Laundry must be thermally or chemo-thermally disinfected, whereby only specially certified products may be used for this process. The focus here is not only on the purity of the laundry, but also on ensuring that the machines are germ-free and that the waste water has almost drinking water quality when it leaves the laundry. It is important to ensure there is no release of pathogens in nature. Finally, heat applications such as ironing or pressing kill off the last microorganisms before the laundry is folded and stacked.
MRSA is the abbreviation for “methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus”. MRSA germs thus count as staphylococci, a widespread group of bacteria. Like other staphylococci, MRSA is often found on the skin and mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract of humans and animals. What is special about the MRSA germ is that many antibiotics do not have any effect on it – it is multi-resistant.
(c) Freepik
The pathogens are most frequently passed on from person to person by direct contact. The main transmission path are the hands. Both, MRSA patients and MRSA carriers can be vectors. The latter can also infect themselves if, for example, they transfer the bacterium from the nasal atrium into an open wound. Contact with contaminated objects such as door handles, handrails, handles or bathroom utensils may also result in infection. The pathogens adhere very well to plastic materials and stainless-steel alloys, such as catheters.
In recent years, commercial livestock farming has led to the development of a new source of MRSA infection for humans. Infections with LA-MRSA can occur in people who have direct contact with farm animals in mass livestock farming (especially pig and poultry fattening facilities). For example, farmers, veterinarians or slaughterhouse employees are affected.
If MRSA penetrates the tissue during an infection, the disease initially proceeds like an infection with “normal” staphylococci, i.e. it also shows the same symptoms: dermatitis (such as ulcers or pus accumulation), wound infections (especially after operations and inflammations of individual organs) such as urinary tract infections, pneumonia or bloodstream infections. Due to the existing antibiotic resistance, however, such MRSA infections (especially in septicaemia) are much more difficult to treat with medication, so that the disease can be life-threatening.
MRSA does not necessarily have to cause a disease. In people who are colonized with MRSA, a disease can break out when the immune system is weakened and the bacteria find their way into the body. The afflicted are contagious as long as the pathogen can be detected.
Approximately four to ten days after MRSA infection, the first symptoms appear. However, people who are not infected with MRSA, but only colonized, often do not experience any symptoms at all. In some cases, the germs simply live permanently on the skin and mucous membranes without causing harms.
For the tests, swabs are generally taken from the nasal atrium, pharynx, armpits and groin respectively pus or wound secretion from the infected tissue is collected. The testing also shows which antibiotic resistances are present in the MRSA germ. Such an antibiogram shows which medication is no longer effective against the pathogen and which is the most promising.
In the case of an MRSA infection, the therapy usually consists of a special combination of different antibiotics. The threating physician selects exactly those antibiotics, that have been shown to be effective against the germ in the laboratory test (antibiogram), such as glycopeptide antibiotics together with rifampicin, clindamycin or gentamicin A combination of fosfomycin and fusidic acid is also possible. Drugs from the group of beta-lactam antibiotics are not suitable for therapy, because MRSA germs are resistant to them.
If the treating physician decides on MRSA therapy with only one single antibiotic, he or she can also resort to the active substance linezolid. Other drugs that can also be used in MRSA are tigecycline, daptomycin or newer cephalosporins.
Hospitals and care facilities can basically prevent the spread of MRSA easily by strictly adhering to certain hygiene measures: The spread of MRSA bacteria can be reduced by physicians and nurses through disinfecting their hands, disinfecting objects and wearing disposable gloves. Visitors should also use the hand disinfectants provided before and after each visit.
If an MRSA infection has been treated with antibiotics, this does not mean that the affected person is free of MRSA afterwards. As a rule, this is only the case if MRSA has also been remediated. After an MRSA infection has been treated, there is still often a colonisation with MRSA, but there are no symptoms. In this casefamily members or the immediate social environment do not have to worry about contracting MRSA. The risk of infection is very low for healthy people. Nonetheless, kissing or close physical contact can lead to temporary colonisation, which usually passes without symptoms.
However, people with open wounds or skin injuries should take precautions. This also applies to people who are generally susceptible to infections with staphylococci, such as people with chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes) or with a weakened immune system (e.g. after organ transplantation or due to HIV). In such cases, the treated MRSA patient should remain physically separated from others until complete MRSA remediation.
The approach in the Netherlands is partly different from that in other European hospitals. Since the 1980s, the so-called search-and-destroy-strategy has been pursued: every patient who might have MRSA is isolated and swabs are taken. Until it is clarified, the patient is treated in isolation. Swabs must also be taken from all contact patients. Patients or staff who appear to be positive for MRSA are treated with decontamination products. These are nasal ointments and chlorhexidine liquid soap, with which skin and hair have to be washed. If the MRSA bacteria also cause an infection, antibiotics are used. Physicians in the Netherlands are very cautious about employing antibiotics in order to avoid resistances. Due to the active search for MRSA, the screening strategy, and the moderate use of antibiotics, MRSA is relatively rare in the Netherlands compared to other countries.
(c) qimono – Pixabay
What are nosocomial infections?
A nosocomial or hospital-acquired infection is an infection that develops in the hospital, i.e. that was neither present nor incubated when the patient was admitted to the hospital.
What are the most frequent nosocomial infections?
The most common nosocomial infections include urinary tract infections (40%), lower respiratory tract infections (20%) and postoperative wound infections (15%), followed by vascular catheter-associated infections (8%).
What are the main causes of nosocomial infections?
The diseases or health problems to which patients owe their inpatient stay also make those affected more susceptible to infectious agents. Certain factors additionally increase the probability of a hospital infection (e.g. higher age of the patient, very young age of the patient, particularly premature infancy, malnutrition, surgical wounds). Contaminated equipment or nurses and physicians with non-disinfected hands also increase the risk of infection.
Which are the most important pathogens?
In about 71% of cases, nosocomial infections are caused by bacteria, while viruses are the source in about 21% of cases. The rest is caused by fungi and parasites. The most important bacterial pathogens of hospital infections are Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and enterococci. Many of them also occur on or even in the bodies of healthy people, but do not cause any damage because the immune system keeps them under control. In sick or immunocompromised people, however, the intrusion of such pathogens can trigger a nosocomial infection.
MRSA
Multi-resistant bacteria are particularly dangerous because the pathogens have become insensitive to appropriate medication (antibiotics) and are therefore difficult to combat. MRSA (meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which has become resistant to many common antibiotics, plays an important role among these multi-resistant germs.
How can nosocomial infections be detected?
Symptoms vary from type to type, but usually a patient develops SSI, meningitis, pneumonia or urinary tract infections. They can also cause fever, shortness of breath, headaches, diarrhoea, nausea and leakage of wound secretion.
How are nosocomial infections treated?
Nosocomial infections are generally treated with antibiotics. In urgent cases, antibiotic combinations are already administered preventively. However, microbiological tests are indispensable for targeted treatment. For this purpose, suitable samples are taken and an antibioticogram is created:
If pneumonia is suspected, the doctor performs a bronchial lavage, i.e. he rinses the lung with saline solution and extracts the secretion again.
A urine sample is required to detect urinary tract infections.
The typical wound infection after surgery can be detected with a smear from the affected area, the most common being Staphylococcus aureus and the multi-resistant representatives of this type settle here. An infection with Candida Species or Staphylococcus aureus is particularly dangerous, resulting in a high mortality rate.
The samples are applied to culture media and examined for sensitivity to antibiotics. Depending on the result, the most promising medication is selected.
What are the consequences of nosocomial infections?
Healthcare-acquired infections can significantly worsen a patient’s condition and delay the healing process. As a result, patients have to stay longer in the hospital. This also means an increase in treatment costs.
How can nosocomial infections be prevented?
Washing hands, i.e. hand hygiene, is one of the most important measures to prevent nosocomial infections. In principle, nursing staff are required to thoroughly clean their hands before and after each patient contact. However, there are still considerable shortcomings in the implementation of these vital hygiene measures.
(c) freepik | tirachardz
Although studies sometimes disagree, it is known that we often (4-26 times per hour) and unconsciously touch our faces. Also, in the hospital, numerous surfaces are touched daily – consciously or unconsciously.
Approximately one third of hospital associated infections (HAI) are transmitted by the hands of the nursing staff who have previously ingested the pathogen via a surface or the patient. In addition, ingested pathogens can be transmitted by the host from surface to surface and thus propagate.
Assuming that hospitals are cleaned regularly to the best of their knowledge, there are surfaces that are more likely to be overlooked than others. These include the pole grab area, visitor chairs or light switches. Other objects that are often overlooked include objects in the break room, such as the coffee machine, locker, microwave, etc. The private smartphone also belongs to this category, especially if it’s used during working hours.
Daily in use, but too rarely cleaned, are medication dispensing machines and clipboards to which patient files are attached and which are in daily use by several hands.
The Institute for Hygiene and Public Health of the University Hospitals Bonn has developed a 4-field test to test the effectiveness of disinfection wipes. Four fields of action are examined: bactericidal, levurocidal, fungicidal, sprizidal and mycobactericidal. Unsurprisingly, research results have shown that the amount of disinfectant and the mixing ratio, for example with water, contribute to the cleaning process.
Regardless of this, regular cleaning is the order of the day.
Steel is one of the most robust and popular materials in the hospital environment. It is a very hard and heat-resistant surface, but is susceptible to craters. If not cleaned properly, bacteria can settle in these scratches.
Laminate is equally prominent because it is inexpensive. However, it is not too robust and pathogens can settle in damaged areas.
The ideal surface does not exist. Solid surfaces made of acrylic or modified polyester acrylic are less susceptible to damage, but germs can also accumulate there between cleaning.
(c) pixabay
A surgical site infection (SSI) is an infection that occurs after surgery in the part of the body where the surgery took place. Surgical site infections can sometimes be superficial infections involving the skin only. Other surgical site infections are more serious and can involve tissues under the skin, organs, or implanted material.
The most common germs causing SSIs are the bacteria Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Pseudomonas. Germs can infect a surgical wound through various forms of contact, such as from the touch of a contaminated person or surgical instrument, through germs in the air, or through germs that are already on or in the body and then spread into the wound.
A surgical wound infection can develop any time from two to three days after surgery until the wound has visibly healed (usually two to three weeks after the operation). Very occasionally, an infection can occur several months after an operation.
Most surgical site infections can be treated with antibiotics. The antibiotic depends on the bacteria causing the infection. Sometimes patients with SSIs also need another surgery to treat the infection.
There is evidence showing that antibiotics given at a set time before surgery will usually prevent infections (prophylaxis). However, there is no evidence that using antibiotics for prophylaxis after surgery prevents infection in any way. In fact, it may even be harmful by contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics should only be used after surgery to treat infections, not to prevent them.
To prevent SSIs, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers should clean their hands and arms up to their elbows with an antiseptic agent just before the surgery and clean their hands with alcohol-based hand rub before and after caring for each patient.
Patients should ask the doctor what they can do to reduce their risk for a surgical site infection. The most important things are to stop smoking and to avoid shaving in the skin area that the surgeon is planning to operate through. The surgical team should be informed about the medical history, especially if the patient has diabetes or another chronic illness.
After surgery the patient should follow the doctor’s instructions about wound care. If the patient develops a fever or pus, redness, heat, pain or tenderness near the wound or any other signs or symptoms he/she should inform the doctor immediately.
Patients should make sure that doctors, nurses, friends and family members disinfect their hands before and after they enter the room.
Is there a specific topic that you are interested in and you would like us to publish? You are an expert and would like to provide us with your FAQs on a specific topic? We are excited about your contribution, send us your message to office@semmelweis.info.
This time we were privileged to welcome Andreas Voss, Professor and Chair of the department of clinical microbiology and infection control at the University Medical Center in Groningen, Emese Szilagyi, medical director at Péterfy Hospital in Budapest, and last but not least Jakub Kozák, CEO and co-founder of Datlowe.
“Learning from the Best” has been the motto for the 2nd Semmelweis Talk that took place on 28th of June 2022.
Representatives from Villach (Austria), Ms Elke Schindler, and Pula (Croatia), Ms Martina Močenić, shared insights into their journey as award winners.
In our first Semmelweis Talk “Humor as Success Factor in Hospital Hygiene” Monica Culen (Red Noses) and Didier Pittet (WHO) gave interesting insights in their work.