The Ebola virus Disease (EVD) may have gone, yet there are other deadly infections still lurking at hospitals, spreading from sick patients to hospital staff and to the well patients.
A recent investigation of hospitals revealed that millions of people get infected from their stay at the hospital and majority of them die from those infections. The investigation by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), conducted in hospitals within America, found that these infections spread majorly through doctor’s coats and stethoscope. According to their findings, even a well disinfected and clean waiting room could not prevent bacteria from spreading between vulnerable patients and hospital staff.
The scientists found that much of the transmission, happen innocently through doctors’ iconic white coats. Unfortunately, little evidence suggests the coats should go.
“While studies have demonstrated the clothing of health care personnel may have a role in transmission of pathogens, this role has not yet been well established,” Dr. Gonzalo Bearman, lead author of the study and member of SHEA’s Guidelines Committee, said in a statement.
And aside doctor’s coats, the researchers found that the humble stethoscope may also be a breeding ground for germs.
A recent study showed that stethoscopes are, on average, dirtier than doctors’ own palms. Researchers took swabs of both the instrument and several regions of the hand and found that all but the doctors’ fingertips were dirtier than their stethoscopes. Lead investigator Dr. Didier Pittet argued the tool made it easy for diseases to be transmitted. “By considering that stethoscopes are used repeatedly over the course of a day, come directly into contact with patients’ skin, and may harbor several thousands of bacteria collected during a previous physical examination, we consider them as potentially significant vectors of transmission”, he said.
Another reason they gave for the spread of hospital infection is lack of separate examination rooms for well patients and sick patients. “People may enter the examination room with a cold and leave with Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA”, they said.
The researchers suggested constant hand washing as one of the measures for preventing hospital infections but added that patients need to be partly responsible for the cleanliness of their examination.
“If a doctor fails to wash her hands before examining a patient it’s because she forgot, not because she didn’t know better. But this cognizance has to be a two-way street. Patients need to feel, and be, partly responsible for the cleanliness of their examination. Doctors must take every precaution they can to keep bacteria at bay, and patients should not be afraid to inquire about this things”, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University said.
Another report by Laxminarayan and colleagues analyzed administrative data from a huge national database of information on hospital records for 69 million U.S. residents in 40 states between 1998 and 2006. They focused only on infections acquired in the hospital, and not on infections picked up in the community. They found out that every year, 48,000 people die of infections they caught while in the hospitals.
“When a patient goes to the hospital with an illness and then dies of another one, it does not always occur to the family that it could be from the hospital. Hospital acquired infections actually kill three times more people than HIV does. Yet we’re only beginning to get a handle on the size of the problem”, says study researcher Ramanan Laxminarayan, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C. think tank Resources.
Among the deadly germs in hospitals are; Clostridium difficile (C. diff), carbapenemresistant Enterobacteriaceae and Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA- a germ that is not easily controlled by antibiotics.
According to researchers, the infections often develop during or after surgery, or can be traced to urinary catheters or central-line catheters, which are used to provide intravenous nutrition, fluid, and medication to seriously ill hospital patients.
It was also found that children are most susceptible to hospital-acquired infections. This is because they always wander about the examination rooms touching things.
“To prevent your child from picking these germs, make sure your child washes his or her hands with soap and water both before and after an office visit. When at the doctor’s office, encourage your child to sit in the chairs provided, avoid sitting on the floor and touching items in the office. Avoid them from wandering about or touching sick people. Finally, encourage children to help prevent the spread of their own germs when suffering from a cold. When coughing, they should cover their mouths with their arms”, they said.
By: Franka Osakwe
National Mirror News
ABUJA: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
PORTHARCOURT: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
LAGOS: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
STOP paying for airtime and electricity, Let your phone pay its bills with ScreenT
You may also like
Comrade Lemii Christian Emerges Chairman of NANNM Rivers State Branch in Historic Victory
PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA Following the long awaited National Association of N…
FG Supports Robotic Surgery Expansion to Reduce Medical Tourism
Nigeria is taking another step toward strengthening specialised healthcare …
Complete Knee Replacement Rehabilitation Package in Lagos
Knee replacement surgery is a major step toward pain relief and improved mo…
NAMDA threatens strike over unpaid medical lecturers’ allowances
The Nigerian Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) has warned…
Resident Doctors Signal End to Strike Threat After High-Level Talks with Gbajabiamila
The threat of a nationwide indefinite strike by the Nigerian Association of…
