Don't Eat Poop Archives
Handwashing
October - 2007
People don't wash hands on television
19.oct.07
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2007/10/articles/handwashing/people-dont-wash-hands-on-television/
Tracy Hughes has a bone to pick with television shows.
People rarely wash their hands
Hughes writes in British Columbia's Salmon Arm Observer that,
on medical dramas, you almost never see hand-washing unless it is a top-notch surgeon scrubbing up before he goes into the operating room and a nurse whispers some tragic secret to him just before he has to complete the first-ever super-duper, resection of the quadruple nerve -ending bypass.
What really gets Hughes is the number of scenes that place characters in washrooms and they don’t wash -- even after they use the toilet.
I agree. When we looked at TV chefs a few years ago, very few washed their hands. There was a food safety infraction on average every four minutes.
CANADA: In a lather over hand-washing hands
17.oct.07
Salmon Arm Observer
Tracy Hughes
http://www.saobserver.net/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=29&cat=48&id=1086149&more=0
Hughes writes that she has a bone to pick with television shows because on TV, people rarely wash their hands.
A fan of medical dramas, you almost never see hand-washing unless it is a top-notch surgeon scrubbing up before he goes into the operating room and a nurse whispers some tragic secret to him just before he has to complete the first-ever super-duper, resection of the quadruple nerve -ending bypass.
What really gets Hughes is the number of scenes that place characters in washrooms and they don’t wash -- even after they use the toilet. Yik.
Hughes says she is very cognizant of the hand-washing issue, as she is potty-training her two-year-old.
Ask any doctor and they will likely tell you that despite the advent of high-tech pharmaceuticals, vaccines and modern medical techniques, the best defence against illness is hand-washing.
Hughes cites a recent study about the sanitary habits of British Columbians released by Interior Health which says that apparently 92 per cent of adults claim to always wash their hands after using public restrooms, but only 77 per cent of people were actually observed doing so.
US: Consumers Union urges hospitals to disclose handwashing compliance rates
15.oct.07
Consumers Union
http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_health_care/004995.html
AUSTIN, TX -- As “Hospital Infection Prevention Week” (October 14-20) begins across the country, Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, is calling on hospitals nationwide to disclose their hand washing compliance rates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers proper hand hygiene to be the single most important factor in protecting patients from hospital acquired infections, which kill nearly 100,000 Americans every year. Yet most hospitals fail to ensure that health care workers follow proper hand hygiene practices on a consistent basis.
“Clean hands save lives,” said Lisa McGiffert, Director of Consumers Union’s Stop Hospital Infections campaign (www.StopHospitalInfections.org) . “Unfortunately, most hospitals have a poor track record when it comes to making sure caregivers are protecting patients from infections by cleaning their hands properly.”
Numerous studies have documented that hand hygiene compliance rates in most hospitals are unacceptably low – usually below 50 percent. That means, on average, doctors, nurses and other health care workers are failing to clean their hands properly with over half of their patients. A recent survey by the Leapfrog Group found that only 35.6 percent of all hospitals have proper hand hygiene policies recommended by the CDC in place. The Leapfrog Group did not assess whether the hospitals were following their policies.
Research shows that bacteria causing infections is often transmitted by the unwashed hands of health care workers who have touched a patient colonized with bacteria or a surface in the patient’s environment that is contaminated. Caregivers who leave the bedside of a colonized patient without following proper hand hygiene can carry hundreds of thousands of units of bacteria on their hands. Even if caregivers wear gloves while caring for such patients, they sometimes contaminate their hands when removing gloves covered by bacteria.
According to the largest hospital-wide survey of health care workers conducted on this subject, compliance with proper hand hygiene practices was lowest in intensive care units and during procedures that carry a high risk of bacterial contamination. Other studies have found a connection between poor hand hygiene and understaffing or overcrowding at hospitals.
“Patients expect hospital caregivers to have clean hands, but this expectation is not always met,” said McGiffert. “One way to restore patient confidence is for hospitals to come clean by disclosing their hand washing compliance rates. Almost every hospital in the country has conducted hand hygiene campaigns in the last few years and now it’s time for them to show us the results.”
Nearly two million patients develop infections while being treated for other conditions in the hospital every year. These patients require extra care and often end up staying longer in the hospital to recover, which adds billions of dollars to the health care bill paid by insurers, consumers, and taxpayers every year.
In a recent report based on data collected from its hospitals, Pennsylvania found that insurers paid nearly $46,000 more for patients with infections than for patients without infections. Dr. John A. Jernigan, Chief of Interventions and Evaluations at the CDC, has said that these infections result in up to $27.5 billion in additional hospital-related expenses annually.
Consumers Union’s Stop Hospital Infections campaign works for public disclosure of hospital-acquired infection rates. Over the past few years, Consumers Union has helped enact requirements in 19 states to make infection rates public. For more information, see:
http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more_background/003544indiv.html
To learn more about the CDC’s recommended hand hygiene policies for hospitals, see:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5116a1.htm
To find out more about “Hospital Infection Prevention Week,” sponsored by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control, see: http://www.apic.org
Proper handwashing requires proper tools
14.oct.07
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2007/10/articles/food-safety-communication/proper-handwashing-requires-proper-tools/index.html
The Manhattan -- Kansas, that is -- Mercury today looked into ongoing problems at local schools and the continuing spread of staph infections.
http://www.themercury.com/News/article.aspx?articleId=c51cdb8e528249fcaf823d55d23d1081).
The Riley County Health Department found that a couple of schools, including MHS West, lacked soap and paper towels.
http://www.themercury.com/News/article.aspx?articleId=96a014b965824dd2b54d119501105bf6
So I wrote this to the local paper:
Proper handwashing is the most effective way to control the spread of infectious diseases, including avian influenza, norovirus, and the staphylococcus apparently running through Manhattan High School's west campus (Taking the temperature of problems in the West Campus building, Oct. 14/07).
But proper handwashing requires access to the proper tools.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that up to 25 per cent of the 76 million annual cases of foodborne illness in the U.S. could be eliminated with proper handwashing.
Based on the available evidence, proper handwashing consists of:
• wet hands with water;
• use soap;
• lather all over hands by scrubbing vigorously, creating friction, reaching all areas of the hands, wrists and between fingers;
• rinse hands; and,
• dry hands, preferably with paper towel.
Studies have concluded that dangerous bacteria could survive handwashing with soap and water if hands were not dried thoroughly with paper towels. The friction created when drying hands with paper towel removes additional microorganisms.
Last month, the Western Mail in Wales stated that the conditions in some Welsh schools, outlined in the final report of an E. coli O157 outbreak in 2005 that left a five-year-old dead and over 100 sick, would shame the Third World, adding, "It’s time to ensure children are not placed in environments which are breeding grounds for disease … to tolerate a situation where schools do not have toilet rolls, soap or hot water is reprehensible."
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2007/09/articles/culture-of-food-safety/leaders-have-foresight/
Similarly, lack of soap and paper towels exacerbated the effects of a norovirus outbreak that sickened over 150 students at a university residence in Ontario in 2006.
http://foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=878
Soap opera
Age and the demands of modern education are no excuse for providing the basic tools for sanitation.
Proper handwashing begins with access to proper tools. That is why soap and paper towels are a necessary requirement for any public bathroom.