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How much S. aureus is hospital acquired? Mk II
I posted a blog a couple of years ago (was it really that long!) on a fascinating study suggesting that only 1/5 of S. aureus in hospital patients is hospital-acquired. My key conclusion from that...
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Water, water everywhere (or nowhere?)
A new paper by Hopman and colleagues (Andreas is also another author but is being modest) has evaluated the effect of removing sinks from the ICU. The trigger for this intervention was an outbreak...
View ArticleMaking MRSA carriage a crime?
A new chapter has been added to our successful MRSA Search and Destroy policy. Yesterday, a healthcare professional, providing homecare to elderly, testified on Dutch television (item starts @ 12.30...
View ArticleThe prevention paradox: E. coli versus Klebsiella
The prevention paradox, as described in 1981, is the “seemingly contradictory situation where the majority of cases of a disease come from a population at low or moderate risk of that disease, and only...
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The Trojan Horse
I’ve been mulling over the issue of sinks in clinical areas a lot recently and a paper published today in the Journal of Hospital Infection has really crystallised my thoughts. Sinks are everywhere;...
View Article“Why Dutch hospitals are so good at beating superbugs”
It is with great pleasure that I ask your attention for this article that appeared in the Economist. Yes, we still have low resistance rates in our hospitals and if you’re interested in how that...
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That sinking feeling
I’m at ECCMID in Amsterdam currently listening to a nice report of an OXA-48 Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak in Gran Canaria in which sinks were found to be contaminated and replaced. Earlier today I...
View ArticleOn the origin of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB)
The colour of the global crisis of antibiotic resistance is red (if te Gram stain is your reference). In rich countries we have ESBL-producing Enterobacterales (mainly E. coli), but the real problem...
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The ‘thorny 5th Moment for Hand Hygiene’: hands and surfaces collide
We talk often about the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene but frequently neglect the 5th moment (after contact with a patient’s environment). So much so, that you might even describe this as the “Cinderella...
View ArticleWhat the Cochrane “masks don’t work” review does (and does not) tell us
You may have seen some commentary and debate on a recently updated Cochrane review on physical interventions to interrupt the spread of respiratory viruses. I’m stepping into the debate only to...
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