Hand Hygiene

Can you use the “ick factor” to get healthcare workers to clean their hands more often? Yes, according to a new study being presented on June 11 at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Most U.S. homes are full of familiar household products with an ingredient that fights bacteria: triclosan. Triclosan seems to be everywhere. When we wash our hands, brush our teeth, or do our laundry, we are likely putting triclosan into our water sources.

Dr. Doussou Touré arrives for work at Coléah Medical Centre in Guinea. She washes her hands from a bucket set up in front of the building, proceeds to a screening area where her temperature is checked and recorded and only then enters the bustling facility that she supervises.

A simulation of how the so-called superbug carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) might spread among healthcare facilities found that coordinated efforts prevented more than 75 percent of the often-severe infections that would have otherwise occurred over a five-year period. The study was led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published last month in the American Journal of Epidemiology.