Are the Media to Blame for the Panic Over MRSA, or is it the Problem of Hospitals not Being Clean!
January 14, 2009 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News, Hospital Cleaning, News , add a commentMRSA is of course a serious problem in the UK, but the media have paid it much more attention than other countries, causing us to panic as usual.
A good example of this is that between the years 1997-2007, the USA published 177 articles about MRSA in their papers, whilst the UK wrote 4,300 articles.
Much of the UK newspaper coverage centres on individual’s stories, about young children or celebrities contracting a hospital infection. But the typical victims of MRSA are actually the elderly and the very ill which tend to be missing.
Concentrating on young and relatively healthy victims encourages the public to see the infection as something we should all be afraid of, clever media stuff!
So what about the media’s focus on the cleanliness of our hospitals?
Well whilst hospital cleaning is part of the answer, so is the reduction of antibiotics, which is regarded as one of the most effective ways of reducing MRSA.
The media should of course tell the whole story about MRSA, but that wouldn’t sell nearly as many papers would it!
C. Difficile Outbreak Means Hospital Ward has to be Closed
December 30, 2008 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News, Hospital Cleaning, News , add a commentThere has been an outbreak of the C. Difficile infection in Craigavon Area Hospital in County Armagh.
Apparently seven new cases of C. Diff have emerged in the last two weeks, The Southern Health Trust have said it is a higher number than expected.
Dr Patrick Loughran explained: ‘The ward is closed to further admissions and deep cleaning has been initiated.’
He said other measures to control the outbreak included screening people with diarrhoea at A& E.
The trust said the rise in C. Diff cases had coincided with an increase in patients admitted to hospital with the winter vomiting and diarrhoea bug, also known as the norovirus.
Dr Loughran added: ‘We are asking all visitors to follow the Trust’s visiting policy which includes no more than two visitors per bed, and cleaning their hands before and after visiting.’
‘We would urge the local community not to visit the hospital unless absolutely necessary.’
New Cleaning Product Reduces Spread of C-Difficile
December 4, 2008 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News, Hospital Cleaning, environment , add a commentA new cleaning product that has been developed, could “significantly reduce” the rates of the hospital superbug Clostridium difficile, say researchers.
A study found that the product, Byotrol, led to a reduced presence of the infection C diff, in the wards where it was tried out.
In the areas cleaned with Byotrol, C diff was present in 20.4% of the sites tested, compared to 27.8% of the sites cleaned with traditional products.
According to the research, the number of patients who developed diarrhoea due to the potentially fatal bug was 50% lower in the wards cleaned with the new product.
The study was run in four hospital wards within the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Two of the wards were cleaned using Byotrol and the other two with bleach.
Dr Richard Deed said: ‘These results show that it is possible to drive significant reductions in one of the most persistent and challenging micro-organisms found within the healthcare system.’
Byotrol, which is cost comparable to most other day-to-day cleaners being used in wards, was made available to hospitals on the NHS supply chain in November.
