Norovirus. H1N1 flu. MRSA. VRE. Across the U.S., infections, outbreaks and epidemics continue to make the headlines. How are the nosocomial infection rates at your workplace? Could your CNAs use a refresher on some infection control basics? Here is some updated infection control information for you to share with your nursing assistants at your next CNA inservice meeting.
Staying On Top of Infection Control
Do you ever feel like infection control procedures waste too much time during your work day? Shouldn't it be enough to wash your hands a few times during the day? After all, how dirty can they get, especially when you're wearing gloves? Well, consider these facts:
- Eleven health care workers in one hospital came down with hepatitis A because they didn't wash their hands after caring for a patient with hepatitis.
- An epidemic of yeast infection spread through an intensive care unit for newborns because several staff members failed to wash their hands after playing with their pet dogs.
- At least half of all cases of food poisoning are caused by people not washing their hands before preparing food.
- Treating people for infections that they pick up while in the hospital can cost up to $30 thousand-per person! Nearly all of these infections could be prevented if health care workers used proper infection control techniques.
- Studies show that over 1.7 million nursing home residents catch an infection every year from germs spread by health care workers' hands.
- Every year, thousands of health care workers catch a cold, the flu or other infection from their clients because they fail to follow proper infection control procedures.
Have You Heard the Latest?
On Handwashing
Studies continue to show that health care workers wash their hands less than half as often as they should. Why? The reasons given include:
- "I don't have time to keep washing my hands all the time."
- "My skin gets dry if I wash my hands too often."
- "There's never a sink around when I need to wash my hands."
- "I don't need to wash my hands. I wear gloves."
Research shows that bacteria thrive on dry, chapped skin. In addition, washing damaged skin is less effective at removing bacteria. (So, if the soap at work causes your hands to become chapped and dry, ask your supervisor about using an alternate soap.)
On Influenza
Flumist is now widely available for those who are leery of injections. It is a pain-free nasal spray available to anyone (2-49 years of age) who does not have chronic disease or a weakened immune system and is not pregnant.
Flumist is a live virus vaccine as opposed to the shot which is an inactivated virus. Therefore there is a small chance of getting flu-like symptoms after taking it. The symptoms are usually mild and last only a day or two.
There are antiviral medications that help treat the flu. They must be given within 48 hours of getting sick with the flu and should not be taken for longer than five days.
On Tuberculosis
Health departments across the country have worked hard to control the spread of TB. Their hard work has paid off! Tuberculosis has been on the decline in the U.S. for the last ten years. However, this is no time to relax! More than 14,000 new cases of TB were reported in 2005 in the United States alone.
Ten years ago, about 25% of our tuberculosis cases involved people who had moved to the United States from other countries. Today, that number is 58%! If you work with clients who have recently immigrated to the United States, be sure to watch for signs of tuberculosis.
On HIV/AIDS
About one million Americans are living with AIDS and about one quarter of these people don't even know they are HIV+.
AIDS cases among people over age 50 are on the rise. Many of the cases come from heterosexual sex. (For example, many older people fail to use condoms because they are no longer worried about pregnancy.)
HIV is also on the rise among young people in America. Studies show that many young people are not practicing safe sex because they believe that HIV will never happen to them.
The treatment for HIV continues to change as new drugs are developed-and doctors learn how to use these new drugs. This is important since at least half of all Americans being treated for HIV are now resistant to the standard AIDS drugs. (For example, the AIDS drug AZT is no longer effective for 70% of AIDS patients.)
On Drug Resistant Bacteria
Doctors used to prescribe antibiotics freely, hoping that they might make a patient feel better. Now, doctors are becoming more cautious about prescribing antibiotics. For example, if they feel that a patient's illness is caused by a virus, they often prefer to "watch and wait".
MRSA and VRE continue to be the most common drug resistant bacteria in nursing homes and other long term care facilities.
In 1974, MRSA infections accounted for only 2% of all staph infections. In 1995, it jumped to 22%. Most recently, that number hit 63%!
Over the last 5 years, C. diff has become stronger, easier to transmit, and harder to treat. This new, stronger strain has spread to nearly every state in the United States and Canada and is becoming a worldwide problem.
In the past, C. diff only affected the elderly and chronically ill patients who had been on antibiotics. However, recent reports show healthcare workers have become infected even though they were healthy and had not received antibiotics before the onset of illness.
15% to 20% of healthcare workers are C. diff carriers. This means that they have no symptoms but can spread the bacteria to others.
What's the bottom line? Proper Infection control practices are never a waste of your time!
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