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Hand hygiene - helping to prevent MRSA etc.
What is MRSA?
MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but is shorthand for any strain of Staphylococcus bacteria which is resistant to one or more conventional antibiotics.
Experts have so far uncovered 17 strains of MRSA. Of these 17, two particular strains, clones 15 and 16, are thought to be more transmissible than the others, and account for 96% of MRSA bloodstream infections in the UK.
Why is it so dangerous?
It is a fact of life in the NHS that patients are at higher than normal risk of picking up a Staph (Staphylococcus) infection on the wards.
This is for two reasons - firstly, that the population in hospitals tends to be older, sicker and weaker than the general population, making them more vulnerable to the infection. Staph infections can be dangerous in weakened patients, particularly if they can't be cleared up quickly with antibiotic treatments.
Secondly, conditions in hospitals, which involve a great many people living close together, examined by medical staff who have just touched other patients, are the perfect environment for the transmission of all manner of infections.
How can we help prevent the spread?
MRSA is usually passed on by human contact, often from the skin of the hands. You should always wash your hands thoroughly before and after visiting someone in hospital. In many cases, the best and most convenient way of doing this is by using alcohol gels. Follow this link to see the Connevans range of hand hygiene products.
Hospital staff who come into contact with patients should maintain very high standards of hygiene and take extra care when treating patients with MRSA. Before and after caring for any patient, hospital staff should make sure they have thoroughly washed and dried their hands. Many hospitals now use fast-acting, special antiseptic solutions, like alcohol rubs or gels - you may find dispensers placed by patients’ beds and at the entrance to clinical areas for use by staff and visitors. Details of these gels can be found in our ‘Hearing Aid First Aid’ section.
If you are concerned about hygiene, don’t be afraid to ask the doctor or nurse treating you, or your visitors, if they have washed their hands.
If you are in hospital, you can reduce your risk of infection by taking sensible precautions:
Why does MRSA exist?
It's all about survival of the fittest!
There are countless different strains of a single type of bacteria, and each has subtle natural genetic mutations which make it different from the other. As well as this, bacterial genes are constantly mutating.
Some strains' genetic makeup will give them a slight advantage when it comes to fighting off antibiotic attack. So when weaker strains encounter antibiotics, they die, while these naturally resistant strains may prove harder to kill.
This means that next time you encounter Staph, it is more likely to be one which has survived an antibiotic encounter, ie a resistant one.
The advice from doctors who give you antibiotics is always to finish the entire course - advice which many of us ignore. When you don't finish the course, there's a chance that you'll kill most of the bugs, but not all of them - and the ones that survive are of course likely to be those that are most resistant to antibiotics.
Over time, the bulk of the Staph strains will carry resistance genes, and further mutations may only add to their survival ability. Strains that manage to carry two or three resistance genes will have extraordinary powers of resistance to antibiotics.
The reason that hospitals seem to be hotbeds for resistant MRSA is because so many different strains are being thrown together with so many doses of antibiotics, vastly accelerating this natural selection process.
What can we do about it now?
One of the main reasons behind the swift evolution of bacteria into "superbugs" is the overuse of antibiotics, both in human and veterinary medicine.
Until recently, patients visiting their doctor with a viral infection might demand, and be given an antibiotic prescription - despite the fact that antibiotics have no effect on this. All those patients were doing was strengthening the communities of bacteria in their bodies. Doctors have now been told to cut antibiotic prescribing.
Hygiene is another tried and tested way of at least protecting the most vulnerable patients from the most dangerous strains.
Hand washing between patients should be a must for doctors and nurses, or they are simply doing more harm than good in their trips around the wards.
Ministers are trying to improve overall standards of hygiene, perhaps by reintroducing the concept of the ward matron, with responsibility for cleanliness. Whether a dirty ward rather than a dirty hand is a reservoir for Staphylococcus is a matter of debate. But MRSA patients are also increasingly being treated in isolation where possible.
Sources: news.bbc.co.uk and www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
Purell hand sanitiser product safety sheet
Once you have hand sanitiser available, you then need to encourage people to use it! Please print as many of the following guidance sheets as required.
Click an image to load a high quality printable pdf.
Ront hand disinfectant hydro-alcohol gel product safety sheet
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