Hand Hygiene Blog

📣  International healthcare workers all around the world!  📣 🎈 Fancy a 5-min break? May 5 is World Hand Hygiene Day and we took the occasion to celebrate YOU, healthcare workers all around the world by creating an entertaining and playful short quiz on hand hygiene. Thank you for your tireless work during this pandemic!  😷 Test your hand hygiene knowledge and get your free "COVID-19 Best Practice Hand Hygiene Training" webinar by filling the quiz here   👉  https://bit.ly/handhygieneday_quiz

Coronavirus. Source Wit et al., 2016. This outbreak started at the end of December 2019 in Vuhan City, China. The virus quickly analyzed, and was found to be different from any previously known human viruses. It was identified as a coronavirus, and named 2019-nCoV ( n ovel co rona v irus). The new strain is closely related to the viruses that cause common cold, SARS or MERS. The most common typical symptoms are fever, cough and breathing difficulties [ 1 ]. There is quite limited information about the new strain, but it is quite well documented what we should do to generally avoid respiratory virus infections. World Health Organization (WHO) published advices for the public on how to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection [ 2 ]: Clean your hands frequently; Proper cough and sneeze hygiene; Social distancing (avoid contacting other people when you are sick, or at risk of acquiring the virus); If you have symptoms, seek medical care early; In coronavirus-infected a...

What are these costs ? Previously we summarized what types of  Electronic Compliance Monitoring System exist , and described how  ECM systems are used in the real clinical settings . Now, we are further investigating what costs are associated with these systems.

Actual clinical settings where ECM systems were applied In our previous posts, we summarized what types of  Electronic Compliance Monitoring (ECM) Systems exist , and showed their strengths and weaknesses. Now we show some actual clinical settings where ECM systems were applied.

Summary of the different concepts of ECMS In our previous posts, we demonstrated that  direct observation of hand hygiene is labor-intensive, time-consuming and expensive . Electronic compliance monitoring systems (ECMS) can eliminate the shortcomings of the direct observation. Now, we summarize the different concepts of ECMS.

One hundred years ago, in 1918, an influenza pandemic broke out. The so-called Spanish flu killed  20-50 million  people, many more than the First Ward War that ended the same year  [1] . Could it happen again? What can we do to avoid it? What is the role of hand hygiene in this story?

Many techniques exist how to handrub, most of them are based on the so-calles WHO 6-step protocol . As we previously summarized , this has limitations; it takes long to perform, quite hard to remember and therefore its compliance is pretty low. For these reasons, several alternative protocols exist , but we have limited data on the efficacy of these alternatives.

In our previous posts, we described  what the fluorescent method  is , and  where should it be applied . But is the fluorescent method validated microbiologically? How can we know that the shining areas are really disinfected? Now, we discuss it.

A couple days ago, a new scientific study was published , about Enterococcus bacteria with increased alcohol tolerance. One day later, Reuters quoted it using a bit more shocking title; „ Superbugs now also becoming resistant to alcohol disinfectants ”. It really sounds terrific. How bad it really is?

Preventing healthcare-associated infections is a responsibility of everyone in a hospital. Still, infection prevention and control activities need to be organized by competent experts  [1] . Many reports claim a shortage of qualified infection control doctors and nurses  [2] . What does “qualified” actually means?