In this episode recorded at the 2024 Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) Conference in Melbourne, Brett and Phil talk to Dr Sarah Browning (ID Physician at Hunter New England) and two Junior Medical Officers (JMOs) Sam and Lochlan who worked on IPC-related projects whilst on placement.

In this episode, Brett, Phil and Martin reflect on the year. We chat about favourite podcasts, papers and conferences in our usual informal manner (well probably even more informal than normal). Papers we mention are listed below.

Cimen C, Bathoorn E, Loeve AJ, Fliss M, Berends MS, Nagengast WB, et al. Uncovering the spread of drug-resistant bacteria through next-generation sequencing based surveillance: transmission of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales by a contaminated duodenoscope. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2024;13(1):31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-024-01386-5

Torres-Teran MM, Greentree DH, Varghese MM, Cadnum JL, Pavis RL, Saade EA, et al. Identifying and Remediating Super-splasher Sinks to Reduce Dispersal of Pathogens From Sink Drains. Open Forum Infect Dis 2024;11(7):ofae293. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofae293

Bush M, Bennett CM, Hutchinson A, Bouchoucha SL. Post implementation quarantine recommendations that support preparedness: A systematic review and quarantine implementation capability framework. Infect Dis Health 2024;29(3):152-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idh.2024.02.004

Dhar S, Jinadatha C, Kilgore PE, Henig O, Divine GW, Todter EN, et al. Lowering the Acquisition of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (MDROs) With Pulsed-xenon (LAMP) Study: A Cluster-Randomized, Controlled, Double-Blinded, Interventional Crossover Trial. Clin Infect Dis 2024;79(4):1024-30. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciae240

Widmer AF, Atkinson A, Kuster SP, Wolfensberger A, Klimke S, Sommerstein R, et al. Povidone Iodine vs Chlorhexidine Gluconate in Alcohol for Preoperative Skin Antisepsis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2024;332(7):541-9. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.8531

Leistner R, Kohlmorgen B, Brodzinski A, Schwab F, Lemke E, Zakonsky G, et al. Environmental cleaning to prevent hospital-acquired infections on non-intensive care units: a pragmatic, single-centre, cluster randomized controlled, crossover trial comparing soap-based, disinfection and probiotic cleaning. EClinicalMedicine 2023;59:101958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101958

Denkel LA, Voss A, Caselli E, Dancer SJ, Leistner R, Gastmeier P, et al. Can probiotics trigger a paradigm shift for cleaning healthcare environments? A narrative review. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2024;13(1):119. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-024-01474-6

In this episode of ICMs we talk to the authors of a world first multi-centre double blind cross-over randomised control trial, which explored the effect of in-room air purification on acute respiratory tract infections.  The rationale and pragmatics of undertaking such a trial are explored, as well as interpretation of the findings.

The lead researcher, Bismi Thottiyil Sultanmuhammed Abdul, a PhD student at the University of Newcastle is joined by some of her supervisors Professors Jenny Sim and Brett Mitchell to explain this study.

The paper can be accessed here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2825943?resultClick=1

Reference:

In this episode, Martin talks to Dr Rebecca Crapanzano-Sigafoos (formerly Bartles) who is Executive Director, Center for Research, Practoce and Innovation at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). We talk about about her work on staffing levels for IPC Teams, beginning with her early work looking at workload and then the recent review and paper on data obtained from the beta version of the APIC Staffing Calculator. It turns out that the vast majority of 390+ participating organisations are understaffed.. What might help however was the finding that hospitals that were better staffed had significantly lower infection rates according to accepted published data. Papers we discuss are found below:

In this episode, Martin talks to Cansu Cimen, a researcher at University Hospitals Groningen in the Netherlands, about a recent paper that documents an outbreak and in particular the critical role of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in tracking and controlling the transmission of MDROs via contaminated duodenoscopes.

Focusing on an outbreak linked to ESBL-producing Citrobacter freundii and Klebsiella pneumoniae after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), standard culture methods failed to detect contamination. After many negative cultures using established methods, destructive dismantling of the implicated scope revealed contamination on hard-to-clean components, highlighting NGS as an effective tool for identifying pathogen transmission pathways.

Cimen C, Bathoorn E, Loeve AJ, Fliss M, Berends MS, Nagengast WB, et al. Uncovering the spread of drug-resistant bacteria through next-generation sequencing based surveillance: transmission of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales by a contaminated duodenoscope. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2024;13(1):31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-024-01386-5.

Download the paper here

In this episode recorded live at the IPS Conference in Birmingham UK in September 2024, Martin talks to Claire Fitzsimons, Senior Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner at the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust. We discuss a poster that she presented at the conference that looked as ways of reducing glove use in the ambulance service through a range of improvement methodologies.

A copy of the poster can be found here

In this episode, recorded at the 2024 Infection Prevention Society Conference in Birmingham (UK) Brett and Martin talk to Conor McGinn, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Trinity College Dublin and CEO of Akara AI, a robotics company spin-off from Trinity. We talk about a presentation that Conor gave, demonstrating how infrared sensors analysed by AI can provode feedback on techniques in the operating room and how they could improve cleaning standards in hospitals.

A link to the video we discussed is here https://youtu.be/CPCFuXyQarY?si=xh1RjXAaKeKY708a

and you can also see Conor's talk here https://youtu.be/3SCEkbwKhM4?si=uztJcnVIAe-vq5U8

In our second live session at a major conference, this episode of Infection Control Matters was recorded live at a plenary session to close day 1 of the Infection Prevention Society conference (Birmingham, UK). Our guest panelists include Dr Berit Muller-Pebody an Epidemiologist from the UK Health Security Agency, Prof Jennie Wilson from the University of West London and Dr Jacqui Prieto from The University of Southampton. The panel also fielded many questions from delegates from the floor.

Topics covered include the role of mandatory surveillance, de-implementation, community based IPC, point prevalence studies, the UK PPS,  fundamentals of care, urinary tract infection, pneumonia and the direction of IPC.

Dr Gemma L Saravanos (she/her) is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and a Registered Nurse leading public health research, and education of pre-registration nursing students. She is based at the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sydney and works across the Camperdown (Patyegarang) and Westmead (Baludarri) campuses in Sydney.

In this episode, Phil chats to Gemma about an open access publication she led discussing IPC programs contribution to environmental harm, and argues the case that increased investment in IPC is crucial for sustainable health and environmental systems.

Saravanos, G.L., Islam, M.S., Huang, Y. et al. Infection prevention and control programme priorities for sustainable health and environmental systems. BMC Global Public Health 2, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s44263-023-00031-4 

Our guest host, Dr Sally Havers this week talks to some of authors from ClEaning and Enhancd DisinfectioN (CLEEN) study (including some regular voices..). The study was recently published in the Lancet Infectious Disease (link below).

The CLEEN study is a world first RCT that explores the impact of cleaning and disinfection of shared medical equipment on HAIs. The study reports significant reductions in HAIs associated with increased cleaning and disinfection of shared equipment.

In this chat, the background to the study is discussed, as well as some implementation and practical considerations. We also touch on the time it takes to clean, which is related to another paper from the CLEEN study recently published in the Journal of Hospital Infection.

For those attending the 2024 IPS conference in Birmingham in a few weeks, Brett will be presenting the full methodology and main effectiveness results at the conference. Early cost-effectiveness data will also be presented, as well as results from a time and motion study exploring how long it takes to clean equipment.

For those attending the 2024 ACIPC conference in Melbourne in November, there is a concurrent session on the main effectiveness results and a lightning session on how long it takes to clean equipment.