Infection control
Products kill microbes, but people prevent infection
Damien Hancox, CEO of SpectrumX, explains how a holistic, systemic approach to infection prevention creates a safer, more hygienic environment for both care home residents and staff
A vast range of pathogens inhabit our public places. A recent study in Liverpool, conducted by the Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON) found pathogens that can cause urinary tract infections, thrush, and gastric ailments on common sites such as handrails, computer keyboards, and even the screens of self-service checkouts in supermarkets.
At the end of last year, the study
prompted the NHS to start a campaign called Simple Things. The campaign urged Christmas shoppers to be extra vigilant about handwashing and other hygiene measures - handwashing, covering their faces, and keeping a distance - to help lessen the spread of winter illnesses. The study highlights the infection potential between the wider community and care, and how easy it can be for a person to pick up pathogens on their hands while out shopping, for example, and then unwittingly carry them into a care home as a visitor or staff member.
A variety of illnesses circulate around this time of year that may cause severe illness in vulnerable people. This winter in particular, scientists have warned of a ‘tripledemic’ of COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza that can be an especially worrisome combination for the over-65s and immunocompromised people. I believe comprehensive, evidence- based infection prevention and control (IPC) practices are critical to helping ensure the wellbeing of care home residents, staff, and visitors alike. Any nurse or carer will be aware that pathogens are in, on, and around us all the time. Most of the time, if we are relatively healthy, our immune systems cope pretty well with the bad ones. When they fail, we usually have modern medicine to fall back on.
But groups such as the elderly, sick, and children are more at risk from some diseases, as the COVID-19 pandemic, the current tragic outbreak of Strep A, and even
seasonal flu cycles, show.
Many of the UK’s 409,000 care home residents are particularly at risk from infections. Living close to others, sharing communal facilities, and being elderly, frail, or having pre-existing conditions increase the chances of contracting infections. A relatively minor illness in the wider community, such as seasonal flu, which usually means a day or two in bed then back to normal life, can be amplified in a care home setting. The flu, the common cold, or C. difficile, a bacterium that can cause a virulent gastric illness, can become severe or even life-threatening in vulnerable people. The British government withdrew its
COVID visiting restrictions in April 2022. Naturally, many residents welcomed the return of regular visits from family and friends, communal activities, and get- togethers.
During the winter months, preventing
infection is particularly challenging for staff and carers, however well-trained and experienced. Staff shortages (according to The Guardian newspaper, 165,000 posts were vacant in the last year) can also add to the difficulty in keeping spaces sanitary and infections under control. Good practices and understanding by everyone of their roles and responsibilities, however, can minimise both stress and infection.
Care homes, of course, will be hyper-
aware of the need to protect residents from seasonal infections such as flu, COVID, and norovirus, having learned lessons and developed more enhanced hygiene processes during the recent pandemic. Prevention is most definitely better than cure when it comes to lessening the spread of infections. Drugs, like antibiotics, are effective for treating many illnesses, but amid concerns about rising antimicrobial resistance, most GPs try to avoid prescribing them unless essential. Antibiotics are also
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com February 2023
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