Infection Control Matters

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.

In this episode, Brett and Martin discuss a recent paper from Sarah Browning and colleagues that describes how an RCT on the ending of aspects of contact precautions (gloves and aprons) for MRSA and VRE could be conducted. The paper can be found here:

https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(24)00243-X/abstract

Our other podcasts on contact precautions, gloves and aprons can be found here:

https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/have-gloves-had-their-day/

https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/reflecting-on-a-contact-precautions-talk-at-eccmid-with-dr-gonzalo-bearman/

https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/25-years-of-contact-precautions-but-benefit-or-harm-and-what-is-the-evidence-with-prof-jennie-wilson/

In this episode, Martin Kiernan catches up with Dr Gonzalo Bearman, Professor of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA. We talk about the opportunities and dangers of using large language models like ChatGPT in the infecton prevention space. A link to a recent open access paper on this topic is here

Langford BJ, Branch-Elliman W, Nori P, Marra AR, Bearman G. Confronting the Disruption of the Infectious Diseases Workforce by Artificial Intelligence: What This Means for Us and What We Can Do About It. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024;11:ofae053 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38434616

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10906702/pdf/ofae053.pdf 

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to representatives of the Multi-disciplinary Team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK, Dr Jessica Martin IPC Matron Adele Dyche and Haematology Matron Katie Sweeting . Building on from previously published work, they describe how efforts from the front line can impact on water safety, including initiatives such as sink removal, education programmes and collaborative working. This work won the 2023 award for Infection Prevention and Control at the annual Nursing Times Awards

The original paper from the group can be found here:

Rice W, Martin J, Hodgkin M, Carter J, Barrasa A, Sweeting K, et al. A protracted outbreak of difficult-to-treat resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a haematology unit: a matched case-control study demonstrating increased risk with use of fluoroquinolone. J Hosp Infect. 2023;132:52-61. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36563938

In this episode, Brett and Martin report on a visit to the massive Interclean Expo held biannually in Amsterdam and the Healthcare Hygiene meeting. We report on the staggering range of equipment available and the fact that IPC often has little say in this especially if there are potential risks, referring to a previous podcast https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/investigating-a-unique-cpeoutbreak-a-possible-new-place-to-look/

Click here for a video of one hall at Interclean (of 12).

In this episode, Martin has been on the road again and talks to two poster presenters at the IPAC-Canada 2024 conference. In the first part, Martin talks to Margaret Cameron from Peterborough Regional Health Centre, Ontario about the use of the Multiple Mini Interviewing approach to the selection of suitable candidates to become part of the hospital Environmental Service Attendant team. This innovative approach uses scenarios to test a candidate's suitability for this important role.

In the second part, Karrie Yausie from Saskatchewan health Authority talks about a blip in orthopaedic implant SSI rates that was investigated with some interesting aspects.

You can download Margaret's poster here and Karrie's here

This week we have a second batch of posters that we liked at ESCMID Global and will be talking about:

• VRE Surveillance using hospital waste water during an outbreak

A pdf of the posters can be downloaded here

In this episode Brett, Phil and Martin tour the posters at ESCMID Global 2024 and we discuss some of them with the authors. A link to images of the posters can be found below.

Here are the posters we discuss

1. AMR Surveillance in waste water and clinical isolates from a tertiary hospital: Preliminary results

Poster link to see the posters we discuss Posters from ESCMID Global - Part 1

More posters to come!

It was day 3 at ESCMID Global 2024 and Phil, Brett and Martin mull over the day. Amongst the items we discuss are:

• What does endogenous really mean?

Subsequent to the podcast recording the ECDC PPS results have been published and can be found here:

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/healthcare-associated--infections-antimicrobial-use-point-prevalence-survey-2016-2017.pdf