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For doctors and nurses, strict hand washing practices are essential to prevent the spread of germs, and a new study has found that this practice should also be followed by patients.
Scientists examined the patients during the first days of their stay at the hospital, as well as the objects they used inside their room, such as the call button. nurse.
The data they collected
proves that patients must also follow a strict hand hygiene. The researchers warned, however, that the results did not mean that patients would fall ill immediately with an antibiotic-resistant bacterium.
In addition, the hands of health care workers remain the main mode of transmission of microbes to patients.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hands, nostrils of patients
Researchers from the University of Michigan have made more than 700 visits to the general hospital wards of two hospitals.
Patients were included in the study and samples were taken from their bodies as well as from their often-touched objects with their permission.
The team found that out of 399 patients it examined, at least 14% had
antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the hands and nostrils very early in their stay in the hospital.
Nearly one-third of the tests on items frequently touched by patients in their room, including the nurse call button, have been shown to be positive for this antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Using fingerprinting techniques, scientists have also sought to determine whether methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains (MRSA)
) on the hands of the patients were the same as in their room. Two corresponded in almost all cases, suggesting that transmission to patients occurred.
In addition, 6% of patients who did not have a multidrug – resistant organism at the beginning of their hospital stay were tested positive later in their stay.
About one fifth of the objects tested in the rooms also had similar superbugs.
"[O]Our results argue for the fight against MDRO transmission so as to involve patients as well, "said Dr. Lona Mody, the geriatrician who led the research team.
Why are the results of the study important?
Mody said it was important that hospitalized patients do not stay in their rooms. They must also get up and walk down the halls as part of their recovery.
Since patients must be transported to other areas of the hospital for testing and procedures, they actually transmit bacteria from other patients and their staff, and leave them on surfaces as well. they touch.
If a relatively healthy person has an MDRO on their skin and their immune system can fight it, a more vulnerable person can come into contact with that other person and get sick.
"No matter where you are, whether in a medical setting or not, this study is a good reminder to wash your hands often," added
Mody. This included before and after food preparation, before eating food, after using the toilet and before and after taking care of someone who is sick.
Mody and his colleagues also published
a study on how curtains protecting privacy inside hospital rooms carry superbugs. That is why it is important to always wash these curtains and change them regularly.
Meanwhile, the details of the new study have been published
in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases
and will be presented at a conference in Europe.
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