A Glimpse into the Safe Care Campaign to Prevent the Spread of Infection
Armando and Victoria Nahum formed the Safe Care Campaign after three members of their family, including their son, acquired infections during a hospital stay. Unfortunately, the Nahum's son died of his infection and Victoria has an incurable auto-immune disease too.
The Safe Care Campaign is an organization that was created to help stamp out HAIs also known as hospital acquired infections. The main objective is to precipitate important paradigm shifts in the practices and theories in a health care setting in regards to different types of hygiene as well as precautionary measures to ensure safe patient care.
This organization is the answer that a serious problem that one family faced in regards to hospital acquired infections. Armando and Victoria Nahum formed the Safe Care Campaign after three members of their family, including their son, acquired infections during a hospital stay. Unfortunately, the Nahum's son died of his infection and Victoria has an incurable auto-immune disease too.
The purpose of the Safe Care Campaign is to educate and promote hygiene safety as well as precautionary measures in all medical caregivers whether in a hospital setting, nursing home setting or other medical facilities. Not only does the Safe Care Campaign work with the medical institutions, they also work with patients as well so that they know what is safe and what practices to look for as well.
To understand more about what the Safe Care Campaign is working for, you have to understand more about hospital acquired infections. Often these infections are also called nosocomial infections which basically mean that the patient contracts an infection in the hospital when that patient was admitted for another reason entirely. Nosocomial infections also apply to those that incubate while in the hospital but then appear once discharged.
Most nosocomial infections aka HAIs are the result of some type of contact transmission. Direct transmission is body to body contact and could be as simple as a touch of the hand. Indirect contact occurs when contaminated medical instruments like syringes, needles, wound dressings or even gloves touch the susceptible patient. This often occurs when the medical caregiver does not change their gloves or immediately wash their hands before touching the patient.
HandwashingIf you have well water or alternate sources, you will want to boil your water to kill germs or treat the water with chemical disinfectants to make the water potable. These chemical agents can be found in camping and outdoor stores predominantly.
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Infection Control Practitioner
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The most common way that germs are transmitted to the patient while in the hospital is through a breach in the body's defenses. This breach could occur as a simple paper cut on a finger to the eyes, nose, mouth, IV entry site, catheter site, feeding tubes and more. When an infection occurs through one of these sites, it can often be blamed on poor hygiene such as contaminated equipment and lack of hand washing.
These are the problems that the Safe Care Campaign is trying to combat through educating not only the patients entering medical facilities but also the medical community as well. Just as with all infection control measures, the best defense according to the Safe Care Campaign is thorough hand hygiene.
Proper hand hygiene involves washing the hands and wrists with warm water and soap. The soap should be lathered up for at least 30 seconds and thoroughly rinsed off. The hands should be dried via a paper towel or air drier. And if soap and water is not available, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer should be used by applying a dollop in one hand. You should rub the hands together, getting in between fingers, under fingernails and even up to the wrist until the sanitizer is dry. The Safe Care Campaign believes that if everyone who enters a hospital room washes their hands first before approaching the patient, more than half of the nosocomial aka hospital acquired infections could be prevented.
Latest News Regarding Infection Control ?
11/21/2008
233,000 Americans don't know they have HIV (UPI)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Some 1.1 million people in the United States are infected with HIV and nearly 233,000 are unaware of their infection, a forum on HIV research said Thursday.
233,000 Americans don't know they have HIV (UPI)
11/19/2008
Hospital must do more to halt infection, patient says (Guelph Mercury)
GUELPH (Nov 19, 2008) -- A Guelph General Hospital patient says medical staff need to do more to halt the spread of a contagious bacteria, though an infection control officer counters that current measures are aggressive.
Hospital must do more to halt infection, patient says (Guelph Mercury)
11/21/2008
Better Tracking of a Childhood Infection Needed, Officials Say (The Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
Federal officials urged doctors and state health agencies to be more vigilant for suspected cases of Haemophilus influenzae type B in children under 5.
Better Tracking of a Childhood Infection Needed, Officials Say (The Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
11/19/2008
Hospital must do more to halt infection, patient says (Guelph Mercury)
GUELPH (Nov 19, 2008) -- A Guelph General Hospital patient says medical staff need to do more to halt the spread of a contagious bacteria, though an infection control officer counters that current measures are aggressive.
Hospital must do more to halt infection, patient says (Guelph Mercury)
11/21/2008
Better Tracking of a Childhood Infection Needed, Officials Say (The Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
Federal officials urged doctors and state health agencies to be more vigilant for suspected cases of Haemophilus influenzae type B in children under 5.
Better Tracking of a Childhood Infection Needed, Officials Say (The Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
11/19/2008
New Online Tools Help Calculate Risk, Control Infection in Horses (University of Guelph News)
Horse owners will be able to determine the risk of their animals catching an infectious disease and gather information about infection control thanks to two new online initiatives from the University of Guelph. The first is an online calculator that allows horse owners to punch in their management practices and learn their animals' risk levels. The second initiative is a blog by Ontario ...
New Online Tools Help Calculate Risk, Control Infection in Horses (University of Guelph News)
11/18/2008
Nanosonics appoints European distributors for infection control product (Pharmaceutical Business Review)
Nanosonics, an Australia-based company engaged in R&D and commercialization of infection control and decontamination products, has formally appointed its first exclusive distributors in Europe located in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France and Scandinavia.
Nanosonics appoints European distributors for infection control product (Pharmaceutical Business Review)
11/21/2008
Better Tracking of a Childhood Infection Needed, Officials Say (The Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
Federal officials urged doctors and state health agencies to be more vigilant for suspected cases of Haemophilus influenzae type B in children under 5.
Better Tracking of a Childhood Infection Needed, Officials Say (The Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
11/21/2008
233,000 Americans don't know they have HIV (UPI)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Some 1.1 million people in the United States are infected with HIV and nearly 233,000 are unaware of their infection, a forum on HIV research said Thursday.
233,000 Americans don't know they have HIV (UPI)
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