Infection Control Matters

In this episode, Martin and Brett get views on contact/droplet/airborne transmission from an Engineer (Prof Cath Noakes) and a Physicist (Prof Lidia Morawska).

Prof Catherine Noakes OBE is Professor of Environmental Engineering for Building at the University of Leeds. She is a chartered mechanical engineer, with a background in fluid dynamics. Her teaching and research expertise is in building physics and environmental engineering and leading research into ventilation, indoor air quality and infection control in the built environment. Her internationally recognised group carry out experimental and modelling based studies, in particular to explore the transport of airborne pathogens, the influence of indoor airflows and effectiveness of engineering approaches to controlling airborne disease transmission. This include substantial research activity and policy advice relating to COVID-19 transmission. During the COVID-19 pandemic She co-chaired the Environment and Modelling sub group for the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and  contributed to multiple advisory groups and initiatives through IMechE, CIBSE, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Academy of Medical Sciences, WHO, the NHS and several government departments.

Prof Lidia Morawska is Distinguished Professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, at the Queensland University of Technology and Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH) at QUT. Her work focuses on fundamental and applied research in the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on human health, with a specific focus on atmospheric fine, ultrafine and nanoparticles. Since 2003, she expanded her interests to include also particles from human respiration activities and airborne infection transmission. In 2018, she received the Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research, as well as the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) 2017 David Sinclair Award. In 2020, she contributed to the area of airborne infection transmission of viruses, including COVID-19. In that same year she became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) and received the 2021 International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate Special 2020 Award for an Extraordinary Academic Leadership. In 2021, she was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

In this podcast, Phil, Martin and Brett try to summarise the key messages they heard from recent guests discussing contact, droplet and airbourne transmission.

What were the key points and similarities? Find out in this podcast.

In part 4 of this series on the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne, we hear from a further range of guests on this topics.

This week we talk to:

• Hilary Humphries (Ireland)

If you haven't listened to the previous episodes in the series, please listen to them first.

In part 3 of this series on the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne, we hear from a range of guests on this topics.

This week we talk to:

• Marjia Juraja (Australia)

If you haven't listened to the previous two episodes in the series, please listen to them first.

In this podcast, Brett, Phil and Martin discuss the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne. Over the course of the next 3 podcasts, we will briefly talk to a range of people from across the world on their view on this topic. In this podcast, we introduce the topic and hear from our first two guests.

The purpose of this podcast is to hear a range of views, with the goal of moving this topic forward.

In this kick-off episode we also talk to

• Kirsty Buising (Melbourne, Australia)

In part 2 of this series on the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne, we hear from a range of guests on this topics.

This week we talk to:

• Rhonda Stewart (Australia)

If you haven't listened to the previous episode (last week), please listen to that first.

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin are joined by Professor Hilary Humphreys of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. They discuss a recent paper that quantifies the impact of TB work on an acute hospital IPC team workload

In this week's podcast, Brett and Phil discuss an article just published in the American Journal of Infection Control titled "Concerns and frustrations about the public reporting of device-related healthcare-associated infections: Perspectives of hospital leaders and staff".

The link to the article is here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35948123/

Other papers mentioned in this podcast:

Mary Dixon Woods study: What Counts? An Ethnographic Study of Infection Data Reported to a Patient Safety Program. Dixon-Woods, M. Leslie, J. Bion and C. Tarrant Milbank Quarterly 2012 Vol. 90 Issue 3 Pages 548-91

Phil Russo study: Consumer knowledge and attitudes toward public reporting of health care–associated infection data  Russo, P. Digby and T. Bucknall. American Journal of Infection Control 2019 Jun;47(6):656-660

In this week's episode Brett and Martin discuss a recent paper from the ESGNI (ESCMID Study Group for Nosocomial Infections) that looks at a survey of environmental sampling practrices in Europe. Are we more confident on our abilities than we should be? As ever, more questions and answers with this one. We also highlight a very useful paper published in JHI a couple of years aso (See below)

ESGNI Link -  https://www.escmid.org/research_projects/study_groups/study_groups_g_n/nosocomial_infections/

1. van der Schoor AS, et al. Environmental sampling practices of innate hospital surfaces. A need for guidance and consensus? A survey conducted by the ESCMID Study Group for Nosocomial Infections (ESGNI). J Hosp Infect. 2022.  https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2022.07.024  https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(22)00243-2/fulltext

2. Rawlinson S, et al. How to carry out microbiological sampling of healthcare environment surfaces? A review of current evidence. J Hosp Infect. 2019;103(4):363-374.  https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2019.07.015

In this week's episode, Phil and Martin talk to Bob Garcia, microbiology-trained infection preventionist, about a recent collaborative expert paper published in the American Journal of Infection Control that suggested recommendations about the future of IPC practice.

Paper discussed is here:

1. Garcia R, et al. Recommendations for change in infection prevention programs and practice. Am J Infect Control. 2022.  https://doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2022.04.007