Press Room May 09

GCC Plans improved superbug controls

Initiatives are being taken after one of the UAE´s (United Arab Emirates) largest hospitals found 62 MRSA cases in its first year of screening for the infection.

The GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council)* has issued infection control guidelines to unify regional standards and reduce the number of potentially life-threatening infections acquired in hospitals. The guidelines, the first set of regional policies in the Middle East to address the problem, have taken a year to finalize and are currently on the “printing presses”, according to Dr Ziad Memish, the director of the GCC´s Centre for Infection Control.
   “The first point is to standardize the practice”, he said.
      *GCC = GULF CO-OPERATION COUNCIL = Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The National UAE (United Arab Emirates)
December 2008

MRSA can be a killer, but it too can be killed

Known as a “superbug”, the drug resistant form of bacteria known as MRSA has made headlines in recent years for its quietly lethal consequences. The bacteria is not the exotic killer that it may appear to be. Many people already have the bacteria in their system, and MRSA, by itself, rarely kills them.

A culture of over-prescription of antibiotics in the nation’s hospitals is also a cause of the spread of MRSA. Until recently, these powerful drugs were widely available, even without a prescription, and doctors continue to be overzealous in their usage. Antibiotics are an effective resource but they must be used sparingly.

By their very nature, hospitals are magnets for contagious disease and bacteria. Only through the most stringent policies to promote hygiene can the spread of MRSA be controlled.

The National UAE (United Arab Emirates)
December 2008

Experts Address Glove-Related Latex Allergies

Gloves are the workhorses of personal protective equipment (PPE), serving as a barrier to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from a wide variety of hazardous substances, including viruses and bacteria found in blood and body fluids, as well as chemicals, detergents and sterilants encountered in the healthcare setting.
But gloves are a double-edged sword, sometimes causing skin irritation and triggering allergies in HCWs, as well as in patients.
  There are a number of adverse effects that can be caused by gloves, including latex allergies; the formation of granulomas and adhesions in surgical patients from the introduction of powder into the surgical site from gloves; the incidence of allergic reaction from glove powder that has become aerosolized;
and the incidence of contact dermatitis, a condition in which the skin of hands cracks and provides tiny fissures that allow bacteria to grow.

ICT, Infection Control Today Magazine
October 20, 2008

APIC Announces New Name for Infection Control Profession

To articulate the expanding roles of its members, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), an international organization based in the US, announced that its members will now be called “infection preventionists.” This new term joins a growing list of professional titles, such as hospitalists, intensivists and interventionists, coined by the healthcare industry over the last few years.
  Infection preventionists direct interventions that protect patients from healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in clinical and other settings around the world. They work with clinicians and administrators to improve patient and systems-level outcomes and reduce HAIs and related adverse events. ICT, Infection Control

Today Magazine
November 7, 2008

Branson issues NHS infection call

The recently appointed vice-president of the Patients Association in the UK, Sir Richard Branson, wants all hospital staff to be screened for MRSA, and treated immediately if infected. Sir Richard says any disruption that results would be better than all the pain, misery and death caused by avoidable infections.
  Professor Mark Enright, an MRSA expert, said the policy could make sense, but would be expensive to implement. 
Sir Richard has also called for managers who fail to enforce patient safety standards to be sacked. Across the UK, MRSA rates are falling, but Sir Richard wants to see a much tougher approach. He said: “There have been some improvements, but the facts speak for themselves – and the facts are still horrific.
  “It feels like they have tinkered with the problem rather than really got to the heart of it. Hospitals are there to cure people. They are not there to kill people.” In the UK, as in other developed countries, it is estimated that one in 10 patients admitted to hospital will suffer harm as a result of something going wrong.

BBC News website,
December 23, 2008

Staff face sack for dirty hands

Doctors and nurses who do not wash their hands could be sacked under new rules to prevent the spread of hospital superbugs. The Scottish Government is to introduce a “zero tolerance” regime on hand hygiene for hospital staff, effective from January 2009.
  Those who repeatedly fail to comply have been warned they could face disciplinary action when the new rules are implemented. Ministers previously set a 90% target for hand washing, to be met after three months.
  They now believe this target has been achieved ahead of schedule, but that still leaves up to 10% of staff failing to wash their hands with sufficient frequency. A spokesman for Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said it was “unacceptable” for medical staff to flout hygiene rules. “We are now adopting a zero tolerance approach to non-compliance and all boards are expected to implement this policy from January 2009,” he said.

BBC News website,
December 21, 2008