2023-04-30 08:56:44
Keep your palms, backs and fingers clean with soap and water or hydroalcoholic gel, a powerful means of preventing infections. All it takes is 40 seconds and the right clutches
Hand hygiene done regularly and with the right moves should become a habit like fastening the seat belts in the car. Because washing them properly, we limit the transmission of germs to objects and people preventing sometimes even fatal infections. This simple practice alone can reduce, just to understand, up to 50 percent of infectious diseases (above all urinary and respiratory infections, surgical wounds, bacteremia and sepsis) that are contracted during health care (in hospital, outpatient clinic, Rsa or at domicile).
World Hand Hygiene Day is celebrated on 5 May. Accelerate action together. Save lives, clean your hands (Accelerate action together. Let’s save lives, wash our hands) is the slogan of the World Health Organization for the 2023 edition. The date of the anniversary has a precise meaning: the fifth day of the fifth month of the year as there are five fingers on the hand.
Millions of microorganisms
Our hands are, in fact, colonized by millions of microorganisms
. In particular bacteria, up to 4 million per square centimetre, and to a lesser extent viruses and fungi – he explains Angelo Pan, director of the Infectious Diseases Operating Unit of the Cremona Asst -. A portion of these microorganisms, she said “resident flora”, permanently present on the skin, does not go away with washing and protects the hands from the attack of some “bad” microbes. Another part, however, said “transient flora”, made up of potentially pathogenic germs that can be removed from the skin with soap and water and which can cause diseases, even serious ones, in weak subjects, with an altered microbiota, following antibiotic treatments for example, or low immune defenses, surgical wounds, catheters and probes. The most common are Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Three very aggressive bacteria resistant to the action of antibiotics.
Low cost procedure
Washing hands is a low-cost procedure, as easy as it is essential to protect health. The Covid pandemic taught people and healthcare workers about the effectiveness of handwashing. But from an urgent measure to contain the contagion, today it must be translated into a daily rule of civil coexistence. We must not let our guard down, because there is not only Covid but many other viruses and bacteria to defend against, comments Angelo Pan. Hand hygiene is a means of prevention against transmissible infections by direct contact with a sick person, or indirectly with contaminated objects and surfaces, and by air, through coughing and sneezing (the hands can become infected with the respiratory droplets emitted).
At home, at work, at school, at the gym, in the premises this good rule serves to reduce the passage of upper respiratory tract infections, which cause flu and colds, and gastrointestinal, continues the doctor. While in places of care, underlines the infectious disease specialist, hand washing is a real care procedure. What does it mean? That the patient cannot be examined, medicated, changed, touched without clean hands. This also applies to those who visit him.
At the table and in the bathroom
Fundamental, wash your hands both before eating and cooking and after. In order not to bring germs to the table and remove those that are likely to be acquired by handling raw foods and from the utensils used to handle them, specifies Pan. important wash them before and after using the bathroom, in order not to infect the oral cavity and genitals and not to spread any pathogenic microorganisms. Same before and after diaper changes and contact with small children and immunosuppressed people, sick or with an injury. And even after touching an animal, if you then have to brush your teeth, use the toilet, cook, eat, put on contact lenses, the expert still underlines. And so after datingplaces and public transport, handling money and rubbish and every time you return home.
If you cough or sneeze
We unconsciously touch our eyes, mouth, nose and ears at least 5-6 times an hour, recalls Pan. All the more reason for the accurate disinfection of hands to be mandatory and not optional. If you cough or sneeze, always cover your nose and mouth. With a disposable handkerchief to throw away immediately or using the bend of the elbow, a part of the body that is not involved in our activities. If bare hands are used, it is advisable to clean them as soon as possible and be careful not to contaminate things and people – recommends the infectious disease specialist -. It is a question of behaviors of social responsibility, not of an excess of prudence.
The five moments for healthcare professionals
Hand hygiene of healthcare personnel essential in five moments: before and after touching the patient; before performing an aseptic procedure (tracheal aspiration, insertion of bladder and venous catheters, samples for culture tests, punctures to extract liquids, surgical dressings) to prevent the transfer of microbes to the skin, mucous membranes or medical devices used by the patient; after exposure to her bodily fluids (saliva, sweat, tears, urine, feces, vomit); and finally, after touching surfaces surrounding the patient (bedside items, bedding, etc.) and before leaving or moving to other areas of the healthcare environment.
How to use gloves
Attention to how to use gloves: Before putting them on absolutely necessary wash your hands thoroughly so as not to contaminate the latex and endanger the patient. The same after having removed them, in order not to carry the “bad” germs around the ward, exhorts Pan, also recalling that health professionals would do well to do not wear jewelry and watches it’s at do not have long, artificial or natural nails because they could pierce the gloves and favor the proliferation of bacteria. Woe to thinking that gloves replace hand hygiene. The most frequent mistake among those who work in the health sector are using them when in a hurry instead of washing hands. In this way the operator feels protected but does not protect the patients he assists, colonizing surfaces and objects he handles warns Blessed AllegranziHead of Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections at the World Health Organization.
Precise rules must be observed for correct use of gloves. Otherwise, they risk going from an infection prevention device to becoming a dangerous vehicle for spreading germs in the environment. Gloves should not be used in place of hand hygiene, but in conjunction with it. They must be reciprocated at the end of each procedure, even if aimed at the same patient, and obviously between one patient and another and must only be used in certain cases, when you come into contact with biological fluids (such as blood, urine, faeces, vomit , ndr), genitals, wounds, mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth, nose and ears, and obviously during surgery explains Allegranzi.
How long should the wash take
It’s not enough just to run your hands under tap water. You have to use soap every time, which has an antibacterial action, and apply it evenly over the entire surface of the hands, rubbing the back, palms and between the fingers. Always rinse and dry them. If they remain moist, the rapid regrowth of any transient germ residue is facilitated and the hand becomes “dirty” again, explains Pan. The procedure takes at least 40 seconds. Under this duration the bactericidal effect of the soap decreases. adequate to change the towel every two days – indicates the expert -. If the towel is used little and has time to dry even once a week. Sick people are recommended a personal towel and a change at d.
The hydroalcoholic gel
It is recommended in the absence of a sink and when the hands are not visibly dirty. It takes 20 seconds. In the event of frequent washing, the hydroalcoholic solution is less irritating to the skin and the 60-80% alcohol concentration is more effective, concludes Angelo Pan.
Infections contracted during hospitalization
They are detected every year in Europe 8.9 million cases of infections contracted during hospitalization, which directly cause about 91,000 deaths and only in Italy one million days of hospitalization more. These complications are a very serious public health problem, which above all concerns hospitals with a high level of treatment complexity and the RSA – underlines Benedetta Allegranzi, from the WHO -. The germs responsible are usually endogenous, i.e. already present inside the body or on the patient’s skin and carried by the hands of the healthcare professional to the site affected by the dressing or on the device, for example the catheter, which will have to be inserted. But they can also be transmitted by another patient, by the visitor or by the environmentalways through contaminated hands, or by the respiratory route.
Multi-resistant bacteria
The main infections are those of the urinary tract, those at the level of surgical wounds, bacteremia associated with vascular catheters and above all pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation. They are often the cause multi-resistant bacteria to antibiotics, which can therefore become lethal, recalls the expert. How do you reduce the phenomenon of healthcare associated infections? necessary that every acute care hospital has a prevention and control programme, active on a daily basis, including, among others, hygiene measures and the correct use of antibiotics, with a dedicated budget and competent staff, who are responsible for educating staff. Furthermore infrastructure (isolation rooms) and an adequate number of beds and staff are needed. In Italy, there is often a lack of sufficient resources and there is no national program to contain the phenomenon, says Allegranzi.
April 30, 2023 (change April 30, 2023 | 08:46)
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