The annual Christmas BMJ is always good for a laugh. This year, one of the featured articles introduces the idea of using the tune of Frère Jacques to help memorise the WHO’s six-step hand hygiene technique.
And here’s the song in action:
christmas
Santa’s little helper: engaging children to create information for patients
A cracker in the Christmas BMJ reports the insightful use of children to help create patient information leaflets. Whilst the article is tongue-in-cheek, in the spirit of the Christmas BMJ, there may just be something in it!
The 12 Days of Infection Prevention and Control
You have to sing this. Out loud. Loud.
On the twelth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:
Twelve bowels running
Eleven lines infecting
Ten kids a whooping
Nine hand hygiene dancers
Eight babes a milking
Seven stools a swimming
Six geese a sneezing
No g-o-l-d rings*
Four oozing wounds
Three copper pens
Two sterile golves
And – an – outbreak – in – a – phylogenetic – tree.
* Plain metal bands allowed.
This blog is inspired by a tweet from @IPS_Infection:
Image: HMS Beagle Blog (awaiting permission).
A Belated Christmas Stocking
If your Christmas Stocking disappointed, perhaps we can help. There were loads of fascinating articles published during 2013 that I had on my list to cover on the blog, but just ran out of time. So, rather than letting them fall into the ether, I thought I’d point you in their general direction!
New and novel aspects of environmental contamination:
- Enterococcus spp on fomites and hands indicate increased risk of respiratory illness in child care centers
- Aerosolization of Acinetobacter baumannii in a trauma ICU
- Compatibility of hydrogen peroxide vapor room decontamination with physiological monitors
- Computer keyboard covers impregnated with a novel antimicrobial polymer significantly reduce microbial contamination
- Transfer of Clostridium difficile spores by nonsporicidal wipes and improperly used hypochlorite wipes: practice + product = perfection
- Lifting the lid on toilet plume aerosol: a literature review with suggestions for future research
- The effectiveness of a single-stage versus traditional three-staged protocol of hospital disinfection at eradicating vancomycin-resistant Enterococci from frequently touched surfaces
- Intrinsic bacterial burden associated with intensive care unit hospital beds: effects of disinfection on population recovery and mitigation of potential infection risk
- Predictors of stethoscope disinfection among pediatric health care providers
- The effect of terminal cleaning on environmental contamination rates of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
- Are gym surfaces reservoirs for Staphylococcus aureus? A point prevalence survey
- Efficacy of different cleaning and disinfection methods against Clostridium difficile spores: importance of physical removal versus sporicidal inactivation
- Variability of Adenosine Triphosphate–Based Bioluminescence Assay Readings among Drug-Resistant Pathogens
- Microbial Assessment of High-, Medium-, and Low-Touch Hospital Room Surfaces
- Microbial contents of vacuum cleaner bag dust and emitted bioaerosols and their implications for human exposure indoors
- Women doctors’ purses as an unrecognized fomite
Which interventions work to control hospital transmission?
- Global implementation of WHO’s multimodal strategy for improvement of hand hygiene: a quasi-experimental study
- Is hand hygiene before putting on nonsterile gloves in the intensive care unit a waste of health care worker time?–a randomized controlled trial
- Interventions to reduce colonisation and transmission of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in intensive care units: an interrupted time series study and cluster randomised trial
- Reducing the spread of Acinetobacter baumannii and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on a burns unit through the intervention of an infection control bundle
Other:
- The importance of long-term acute care hospitals in the regional epidemiology of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae.
- Oral DAV131, a charcoal-based adsorbent, inhibits intestinal colonization by β-lactam-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in cefotaxime-treated mice
- Duration of carriage of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae following hospital discharge.
- Infection prevention considerations related to New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase Enterobacteriaceae: a case report
- Differences in outcome according to Clostridium difficile testing method: a prospective multicentre diagnostic validation study of C difficile infection
- Potential for transmission of spores by patients awaiting laboratory testing to confirm suspected Clostridium difficile infection
- Anti-depressant link to Clostridium difficile infection
- Low prevalence of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage at hospital admission: implications for risk-factor-based vs universal screening
- Selection for qacA carriage in CC22, but not CC30, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection isolates during a successful institutional infection control programme
- Do patients feel comfortable asking healthcare workers to wash their hands?
Photo credit: Bo Insogna.
Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control 