Dr Jude Robinson has written this guest post in preparation for Journal Club on Wednesday this week (register here).
I am looking forward to this week’s journal club where I will be discussing the following paper by Watanabe et al. (2025), “The effect of a patient empowerment hand hygiene programme: a single-centre study in Japan”, investigates whether patient involvement can improve healthcare worker (HCW) compliance with hand hygiene (HH) at Tokyo Medical University Hospital.
Continue readingGuest blogger Dr Alexander Edwards (bio below) has written a post in preparation for IPC Journal Club on Wednesday (details and registration for that here)…
Why I chose this article?
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of ventilation in mitigating against the transmission of airborne respiratory pathogens and improving air quality in indoor environments. However, as is the case in many UK hospitals, reliance on natural ventilation as the main source of airflow in patient ward means that attainment of the recommended ventilation rates is difficult to manage. Airflow in indoor spaces is affected by external weather conditions and can lead to uncertain airflow patterns and consequently, the unexpected transport of infectious material to connecting zones. However, the effects of weather conditions on airborne transmission are often overlooked.
Continue readingGuest blogger Dr Isabella Centeleghe shares her thoughts on biofilms and sinks in preparation for the next Journal Club (register here).
Continue readingGuest blogger Kerry Holden (bio below) has written this blog in preparation for next Wednesday’s Journal Club (register here) writes…
Health inequalities are sadly deeply embedded in society and unfortunately growing, leading to unequal access to services and poor care experiences. These disparities contribute to earlier deaths, reduced healthy life expectancy, intergenerational trauma, and substantial economic costs. However, many of these health inequalities are preventable.
Continue readingA guest post by Dr Alexander Sundermann (bio below) in preparation for tomorrow’s Journal Club on genomic surveillance (register here for that)…
When was the last time you investigated a potential outbreak in your facility? How was it identified—or was it even confirmed as a true outbreak? For years, outbreak detection methods have remained relatively unchanged, relying heavily on observing infection patterns or confirming outbreaks reactively using whole genome sequencing (WGS). But what if we shifted this approach to perform WGS proactively on all infections? This idea is the foundation of our new pre-print study, which evaluates whether WGS surveillance can enable earlier outbreak detection and halt transmission before it spreads.
Continue readingGuest blogger Barley Chironda (bio below) writes…
IDWeek has become a cherished tradition for me, much like festivals and holidays, especially when food is involved. Attending this annual meeting for infectious disease health professionals every October and sharing my notes has become a bit of a ritual. This year, the meeting was held in Los Angeles, where the traditional red carpet was rolled out—not for Hollywood actors, but for experts in infectious diseases.
Continue readingThis guest post is by Prof Sally Bloomfield, Chairman, International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH)…
At Infection Prevention 2024 in September, I gave a presentation on this issue which I found challenging and thought-provoking to write. I started from the point that environmental hygiene and cleanliness in healthcare settings has 2 fundamentally different functions:
| “Hygiene” through practices that reduce risk of exposure of patients, healthcare personnel and visitors to pathogenic microbes | “Visual cleanliness” is vital to sustaining patient, visitor and staff perception that high quality care is being delivered |
| Physical removal and/or disinfection to reduce microbial contamination on environmental surfaces (and air) to an acceptable (safe) level | Physical removal of dust, soil, etc by mechanical action with or without detergent, until visibly clean |
This week we welcome Dr Jude Robinson as a guest blogger to Reflections to discuss a paper on surgical site infection prevention.
I feel very honored to have been asked to be a guest speaker on the esteemed IPC partners journal club. I love critiquing papers, and I honestly don’t give myself enough time to do this on a regular basis, probably the same position as many of us with our busy clinical roles. I have really enjoyed preparing for this, so I hope you are able to join Register. I have used a recognised critical appraisal framework to support me with this journal review Qualitative Studies Checklist.
Continue readingAnother guest post from Dr Phil Norville (bio below)…
Very few weeks go by without me reading a paper discussing a multidrug-resistant outbreak that is linked to contaminated water or wastewater systems. The most recent was an outbreak of Achromobacter species in 22 patients which was linked to water in contaminated tubes of a medical pressurizer (used for urology surgery). It was one the reasons Jon and I wrote a letter to the Journal of Hospital Infection calling for a move towards the standardisation of wastewater sampling.
Continue readingGuest blogger, Dr Phil Norville (bio below) writes…
Wastewater systems (sinks, showers and more recently toilets) are attracting attention as their role in healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) continues to gathers evidence. In this blog we take a closer look at toilets and their potential role in transmission, as well highlighting some of the current challenges facing healthcare organisations around wastewater management.
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Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control 