Showing papers in "Journal of Hospital Infection in 2009"

TL;DR: Factors influencing hand hygiene compliance, the impact of hand hygiene promotion on healthcare-associated pathogen cross-transmission and infection rates, and challenging issues related to the universal adoption of alcohol-based hand rub as a critical system change are reviewed.

TL;DR: This review will examine the links between the hospital environment and various pathogens, including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, norovirus, Clostridium difficile and acinetobacter.

TL;DR: There is emerging evidence from prospective studies to suggest that environmental sources, especially water, may have significance in the epidemiology of sporadic P. aeruginosa infections in hospital settings, including intensive care units.

TL;DR: Standard infection control procedures and precautions are reinforced, with particular attention to thorough cleaning of patient areas to take account of the long-term survival of acinetobacter after drying and inadequate disinfection, with many hospitals worldwide now reporting outbreaks caused by multidrug-resistant strains of acetobacter.

TL;DR: Currently, there are neither standardised antibiotic prophylactic regimens for dental implant placement nor universally accepted treatment for peri-implantitis, and in the UK there is no systematic post-surgical implant surveillance programme.

TL;DR: The aim of this review of recent studies on surgical site infections was to compare methods of cost research and magnitudes of costs due to SSI.

TL;DR: The available therapeutic options for the treatment of ESBL-associated infections are limited by drug resistance conferred by the ESBLs, along with frequently observed co-resistance to various antibiotic classes, including cephamycins, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole.

TL;DR: Recommendations to reduce contamination risks include staff education, strict hand hygiene measures, guidelines on device cleaning and consideration of the restrictions regarding use of mobile phone technology in certain high risk areas, for example, operating theatres, intensive care units and burns units.

TL;DR: It is suggested that gastrointestinal colonisation is the probable source of C. albicans candidaemia and C. parapsilosis, both of which are found in patients with positive blood culture for candida.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a 30-day surveillance program with telephone interviews and home visits to identify colorectal surgical site infections (SSI) in 105 patients who met the inclusion criteria and completed the 30 day follow-up.

TL;DR: In this study four methods to determine cleaning efficacy of hospital surfaces were compared, namely visual assessment, chemical (ATP) and microbiological methods, i.e. aerobic colony count (ACC) and the presence of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

TL;DR: Results show large variation between countries, mainly explained by the heterogeneous quality of epidemiological studies, as well as the variety of national clinical practices.

TL;DR: The most significant SSI incidence reduction was observed for hernia repair and caesarean section, and to a lesser extent, cholecystectomy, hip prosthesis arthroplasty, and mastectomy.

TL;DR: Reports of nosocomial influenza outbreaks are synthesised according to the ORION guidelines to highlight existing knowledge in relation to the detection of influenza cases, evidence of transmission between patients and HCWs and measures of disease incidence.

TL;DR: The worldwide emergence of community-associated meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) during the last decade represents a significant change in the biology of MRSA strains and is changing the epidemiology ofMRSA infections.

TL;DR: Overall, the only independent risk factor for ECMO-related nosocomial infection identified in this study was prolonged ECMO use.

TL;DR: The need to validate disinfection products against viruses dried onto surfaces is confirmed and PPV is a particularly resistant surrogate, since many biocides generally considered as effective against non-enveloped viruses and used for high level disinfection demonstrated limited activity.

TL;DR: Organisational mechanisms for supporting training, appraisal and clinical governance are important determinants of effective practice and successful change, and should be considered risk factors for infection.

TL;DR: Improving hand hygiene of healthcare workers and aseptic care of vascular catheters and endotracheal tubes are important measures to prevent A. baumannii colonisation and decrease the incidence of BSI.

TL;DR: It is suggested that probiotics or their products (biosurfactants), could be applied to patient care equipment, such as tubes or catheters, with the aim of decreasing colonisation of sites by nosocomial pathogens.

TL;DR: Hospitals in the Dutch-German border area EUREGIO MRSA-net aim at synchronising their local MRSA standards in order to prevent unidentified inter-hospital as well as cross-border spread.

TL;DR: There is increasing pressure to compare SSI rates between surgeons, institutions and countries, and there is a need to convert theory into practice by the rigorous application of SSI healthcare bundles.

TL;DR: Findings suggest that surface contamination with VRE is due to a failure to clean rather than to a faulty cleaning procedure or product, and cleaning thoroughness strongly influenced the degree of environmental contamination.

TL;DR: TPB was identified as a suitable framework for the emergence of new insights that have the potential to improve the power of existing education and training and was based on a finding that individual experience is of greater import than formal education in explaining hand hygiene behaviour.

TL;DR: In a univariate Cox proportional hazards model, the high CRBSI rate in abdominal surgery was associated with longer CVC duration, frequent use of parenteral nutrition and CVC insertion by anaesthetists, and when frequent ward transfers occurred.

TL;DR: C. difficile can be transmitted via personal contact or via contaminated areas of the hospital environment, and a significant correlation was found between C.difficile counts on the floor and on the hands of patients and healthcare workers in wards without evidence of C. Difficile.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe an outbreak of Serratia marcescens and its investigation and control in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during a three-month period, during which five infants were colonised or infected by a single strain of S.marcescens.

TL;DR: Ciprofloxacin appears to encourage C.difficile-associated diarrhoea and should be restricted to short courses, while environmental sampling revealed the presence of spores on faecally contaminated equipment such as commodes and bedpan shells, which persisted after cleaning.

TL;DR: In this article, a surface was contaminated with bacteria (4 cfu/bacteria/cm(2)), and cleaned with a premoistened microfibre cloth folded to 16-side use.

TL;DR: The mechanism by which E. coli develops tolerance to triclosan appears to be linked to aminoglycoside susceptibility, and it is proposed that changes in outer membrane, or the loss of plasmids, may be responsible for this relationship.