U.S. doubles early supply of swine flu vaccine

U.S. health officials said on Thursday more than 6 million doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine will be available the first week of October, twice as many as they expected only a week ago.

But even as officials ramp up vaccine production, they say most Americans tend not to bother getting vaccinated — especially the children and young adults most at risk of being infected by the new H1N1 virus.
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She said that typically, fewer than 25 percent of children and pregnant women get vaccinated against seasonal flu, which kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people a year worldwide.

Vaccination rates are also below 30 percent for young adults and around 40 percent for healthcare workers.

Full article: here.

Comic carries hygiene message

Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) officials are hoping a new comic book will help raise awareness about hand hygiene and hospital-acquired infections, such as Clostridium difficile.

The Bug Stops Here! will be released Sept. 23 at a free public event at the hospital. The comic book is for staff and visitors and is produced by PRHC.

The nine-page book is about a young girl named Sammy who goes to the hospital to visit her sick grandmother.

Along the way she learns about C. difficile, hand washing and other ways to prevent catching infections.

Full Article: here.

>>Vaccinate kids to control H1N1 flu – researchers

Targeting children for vaccination may be the best way of using limited supplies of vaccine to control the current H1N1 flu pandemic, British researchers said on Thursday.

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Researchers from the University of Warwick said that vaccinating children rather than adults would not only help protect a group at greatest risk of exposure to the virus, but would also offer protection to unvaccinated adults.

This so-called “herd immunity” effect would mean significantly less vaccine would be needed to help control the spread of H1N1, also known as swine flu, which was first detected in Mexico in April.

Full Article: here.

Thousands of patients undergoing treatment or surgery at Scottish hospitals are to be screened for MRSA, Nicola Sturgeon, the Health Secretary, said yesterday.

The national screening programme, which follows pilot programmes by three Scottish health boards, will take place over the next 12 months and will focus on the elderly and people admitted for kidney disease, skin problems and vascular surgery, a group deemed to be most at risk. The only patients not to be screened will be psychiatric, obstetric and paediatric patients.

Ms Sturgeon made the announcement as official figures showed a drop in the number of cases of Clostridium difficile and MRSA in Scottish hospitals.

Full Article: Scottish hospitals to screen patients for superbugs

>>April 7th 2009

Feel safe in hospital?  You’re not.

“This trend toward green products is not without risk,” says Richard Marchand, a microbiologist and member of a government committee that monitors hygiene and safety standards in Quebec’s hospitals. He says that, since the industry escapes regulation, some products are diluted by the manufacturer and, once delivered to hospitals, diluted again by infection-control staff eager to save money – just as cheap beauty salons do with hair shampoo.”

>>April 2nd 2009

Hospitals cautioned against ‘green’ cleaners

“The flood of new “green” cleaning products and disinfectants being used by Canadian hospitals are often ineffective in combatting infections that sicken thousands of patients a year, experts warn.”

Environmental cleaning intervention reduces transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms in ICUs

A rigorous environmental cleaning intervention can reduce the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other multidrug-resistant organisms in hospital intensive care units (ICUs), according to a new study released today at the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Researchers found that following an enhanced cleaning protocol reduced the spread of MRSA to patients exposed to rooms in which the prior occupant had been colonized or infected.

Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) has published “Hospital infection control strategies for antibiotic-resistant organisms”:

Identified risk factors include:

…increasing age of patient and severity of disease, increasing length of hospital stay, admission to an intensive care unit and proximity to patients carrying an antimicrobial-resistant organism. Use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and/or prolonged use of antibiotics are also risk factors.

Full Article:  “Hospital infection control strategies for antibiotic-resistant organisms”