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ON May 23rd, 2008, the French Ministry of Health launched a national hand cleanliness campaign targeting health care workers, patients, and the general public. The campaign emphasizes that proper hand hygiene is the key element in preventing and controlling nosocomial infections.
It is critical that a through cleansing of one’s hands with a liquid alcohol solution containing an emollient to protect the skin precedes all health care treatments, no matter where they are carried out. All health care establishments throughout the country should see to it that these solutions are available at patient’s bed. Health care workers would also be required to carry a small bottle of disinfectant in the pockets of their uniform. |
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GREAT-BRITAIN: EUROPE LOWEST SCORE |
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Written by Christine Besson
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Sunday, 14 October 2007 |
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Britain could
be told to learn basic hospital hygiene lessons from France
and Slovenia
as the European Union joins the battle against superbugs
Proposals
for EU hospital cleanliness standards to reverse the rise of drug-resistant
superbugs, including MRSA, are expected next year.
Britain has one of the worst records in Europe on potentially deadly hospital-acquired
infections. The plans to clean up British and other European hospital wards
will be modelled on France
and Slovenia,
both of which have managed to reduce incidence of, and deaths from, superbugs.
France has reduced MRSA by eight per cent in four years, after
making nurses personally responsible for cleanliness. Slovenia's success is also
put down to a "classical" approach to healthcare and nursing.
Zsuzsanna
Jakab, the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC), believes that "this is first of all a hygiene issue".
"You
would be surprised to see that there are still countries in the EU where
medical staff only wash their hands between 30 per cent of medical
interventions," she told the Brussels
newspaper European Voice. "We should start with basic hygiene standards,
and for this we need EU guidelines."
The
EU health watchdog is also planning research into the Clostridium difficile
infection, which killed 331 people in three Kent hospitals.
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