CM/Spotlight: Outbreak Control Solving The Which surfaces to disinfect, how and how often? By: Benjamin D. Tanner, Ph.D. Disinfecting Conundrum Spotlight Table Of Contents 14 Solving The Disinfecting Conundrum Which surfaces to disinfect, how and how often? 20 Preparing A Pandemic Plan A well-understood plan can be the difference between the proper handling of an outbreak and mass hysteria. 24 Competing Against Infection Key strategies for reducing the opportunity of an outbreak at your facility. 30 Reduce Infection With Equipment Selection Procuring specific restroom equipment can greatly reduce the risk of infections being contracted and spread in restrooms. W for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Infection . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select SUPPLIER SEARCH from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Disinfection . We live in an era of increasing antibiotic resist-ance. Bacterial infections once easily cured by penicillin now resist whole classes of antibiotics. Terms like “multi-drug resistant” and “extremely drug resistant” are new, but have quickly become common in hospitals. The proximate causes of most antibiotic-resist-ant infections are invasive medical devices and compromised immunity, but how do the bacteria spread from one person to the next? Obviously, environmental surfaces play a major role. Infected patients and colonized staff interact with the hospital environment in hundreds of ways every day: An infected patient contaminates his bedding, which in turn contaminates his bedrail; a colonized nurse removes a difficult bandage, stopping to adjust the room lighting; a rushed doctor grabs a doorknob, then remembers he or she forgot to wash their hands after checking on a problematic catheter; and so on. Patients and hospitals can no longer depend on new antibiotics to solve infection problems. Large pharmaceutical companies, the tradition-al pipeline, simply arenʼt investing in antibiotic dis-covery as in years past because the research commitment necessary to identify and exploit uniquely bacterial cellular targets is costly and 14 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • February 2010
CMM – Archives Feb 2010: 14
