Christmas 2013 Update

December 23, 2013 Jon Otter (@jonotter) Updates Christmas update, updates

Welcome to the Micro Blog Christmas 2013 Update! These articles have been published since the last update:

“Dirty money”: are you getting the right change from microbe-contaminated money? (Published 18th December 2013)
Could universal glove use provide a false sense of security? (Published 12th December 2013)
Single room survey: results (Published 10th December 2013)
Should hospitals provide all patients with single rooms? (Published 3rd December 2013)
How much Clostridium difficile is hospital acquired? (Published 26th November 2013)
A postcard from Latin America; carnivals, tango and carbapenem resistance (Published 21st November 2013)
European Antibiotic Awareness Day: how do we get out of this mess? (Published 18th November 2013)
A domestic outbreak of gastroenteritis (Published 12th November 2013)
High levels of antibiotic resistance and low levels of ‘antibiotic literacy’ in the general public are on a dangerous collision course (Published 5th November 2013)
This study has been bugging me for a while (Published 30th October 2013)
Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs); at what cost? (Published 23rd October 2013)
Contaminated surfaces contribute to transmission; the question is, how much? (Published 15th October 2013)
Key themes from ID Week 2013 (Published 9th October 2013)
Infection Prevention 2013 Conference Report (Published 4th October 2013)
CRE outbreak control: a view from the trenches (Published 26th September 2013)
And finally…a particularly festive article was published last week in the BMJ on the survival time of chocolates on hospital wards. The short answer is that chocolates don’t last long on hospital wards, and Roses and preferable to Quality Streets, apparently!

It’s been an enjoyable last few months on the blog, with lots of comments and discussion, so thank-you for those; we do enjoy the interaction. In fact, the recent post on whether hospitals should provide single rooms for all patients has received a record number of comments!

Thank-you in particular to our guest bloggers, Rodney Rohde and Carolyn Dawson. Look out for more guest bloggers in 2014, and if you’re interesting in contributing to the blog, just let us know.

Micro Blog is now on Facebook, so if you like it, please ‘like’ it, if you like.

Finally, we do hope that you have a Merry Christmas and an enjoyable New Year.

See you in 2014.

Jon and Saber.

Photo credit: allerleirau.

Micro Blog Autumn 2013 Update

September 20, 2013 Jon Otter (@jonotter) Updates 2013, autumn, updates

The weather is turning colder and the leaves are beginning to turn, so that must mean it’s time for the Autumn Micro Blog Update! The following articles have been published on the blog since the Summer Update (listed in rough order of popularity based on number of visits):

This is what happens when norovirus “sprays” from a toddler (Published 17th July 2013)
ICPIC 2013 Conference Report (Published 4th July 2013)
Is there a causal relationship between contamination burden and transmission risk? (Published 4th September 2013)
Do you know your CRO from your CPO from your CRE from your CPE? (Published 24th July 2013)
The pitfalls of PCR for detecting pathogens on surfaces (Published 28th August 2013)
The effect of closing and cleaning wards on infection rates (Published 16th August 2013)
Is it time to turn to ‘no-touch’ automated room disinfection? (Published 21st August 2013)
Prevalence survey illustrates the difference between CRE and CPE (Published 8th August 2013)
Look out: resistance outbreaks about! (Published 1st August 2013)
Is “community-acquired” CDI real? (Published 12th September 2013)

As you can see, there’s been plenty of questions and comments, which is exactly what we want to see! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to add them to the blog.

We are planning reports from the upcoming Infection Prevention Society (IPS) conference in London, ID Week in San Francisco and the International Federation for Infection Control (IFIC) in Buenos Aires over the next month or so. Also, look out for some guest bloggers before the end of the year.

And finally…how does good hand hygiene smell? Quite good, according to this study showing that hand hygiene compliance was higher when a fresh scent was in the air!

Micro Blog Summer 2013 Update

June 26, 2013 Jon Otter (@jonotter) Updates summer update

Dear Readers,

It’s been a good few months on the blog with lots of comments. Please keep them coming; we enjoy the interaction.

The following articles have been posted since the spring update:

Eight solutions from the G8 summit to curb antibiotic resistance
(Published 20th June 2013).
The terms ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ intervention leave me feeling upside down, confused (Published 13th June 2013)
Is treating surfaces rather than patients with colistin a good idea?
(Published 11th June 2013)
Universal MRSA decolonization will tend towards universal resistance (Published 5th June 2013)
Dissecting the CRE epidemic in Italy (Published 31st May 2013)
Three good reasons why not to ‘copperize’ your hospital surfaces
(Published 29th May 2013)
Is superoxidised water destined to be an environmental superhero?
(Published 16th May 2013)
SHEA 2013 environment track – conference report (Published 10th May 2013)
An environmental odyssey (Published 3rd May 2013)
How the implementation of hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) could save you money (Published 23rd April 2013)
Can the introduction of 6 copper items into ICU rooms really reduce the rate of HAI by >50%? (Published 17th April 2013)
ICHE special edition on the role of the environment in transmission
(Published 10th April 2013)
Evidence that iphones are less contaminated than blackberrys?
(Published 2nd April 2013)
How long does it take to clean a hospital room properly?
(published 26th March 2013)

And finally… are you gearing up to go to a festival this summer? Then you would be wise to be on the look out for the following according to this article: Cryptosporium parvum, Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Shigella sonnei, Staphylococcus aureus, hepatitis A virus, influenza virus, measles virus, mumps virus and norovirus. Most are associated with faecal-oral transmission, which says something about music festivals, don’t you think?

Don’t forget, you can subscribe to the blog to receive a notification via email each time a new article is published, or look out for updates on twitter here.

Saber and I both have the privilege of visiting ICPIC in Geneva this week. We plan to write a conference report on the blog next week.

Regards

Jon and Saber.

Micro Blog Spring 2013 update

March 22, 2013 Jon Otter (@jonotter) Updates Spring 2013

Dear Readers,

The micro blog has been going well this year, with weekly updates. These are the featured posts:

More single rooms = less acquisition. A simple equation? (Published on 20th March 2013)
Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in US hospitals (Published on 13th March 2013)
No need to worry about environmental contamination with Enterobacteriaceae…or is there?(Published on 5th March 2013)
What does it take to prevent the transmission of C. difficile from environmental surfaces?(Published on 25th February 2013)
MDR-Acinetobacter baumannii beats MRSA in the war for ICU predominance (Published on 14th February 2013)
Keep your hands to yourself (Published on 6th February 20130029
Improved terminal disinfection using hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) or bleach to control C. diff (Published on 30th January 2013)
Where the wild things are (Published on 22nd January 2013)
Hydrogen peroxide at war with catalase (Published on 17th January 2013)
Mitigating the increased risk from the prior room occupant through HPV room disinfection(Published on 2nd January 2013)
And finally…healthcare professionals have often claimed to be able to smell the difference between C. difficile and other gastro-intestinal pathogens. This BMJ study shows that dogs can do the same!

It would be good to see some more discussion on the blog, so if you have any questions or comments, please don’t be shy! (There was a problem with blocking some email addresses, but that has now been fixed.)

We’ll continue to update the blog with the latest articles weekly. Look out for twitter updates here, and quarterly emails summarizing the top 5 blogs from the last few months.

If you’d like an email every time the blog is updated, just let us know.

Regards

Jon & Saber.