Infection Control Matters

Cleaning is Patient Safety: Empowering the People Who Keep Hospitals Safe

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks with Dr Alexandra Peters, President of Clean Hospitals, ahead of the annual Clean Hospitals Day on 20 October.

They discuss this year’s theme of empowerment—why environmental services staff should be recognised as frontline healthcare workers, and why training, professionalisation and giving them a voice matter for patient safety. Alexandra describes how training, certification and career progression are used to professionalise environmental services in Switzerland, and why giving staff knowledge isn't enough if they aren't also given a voice. The conversation asks a fundamental question: should an environmental services worker have the authority to say that a room isn't yet safe for the next patient—even when operational pressures say otherwise?

Alexandra also explains how you can get involved in Clean Hospitals Day 2026, with free campaign resources available in 22 languages.

Clean Hospitals Website: www.cleanhospitals.com

Direct link to the promotional materials here: https://cleanhospitals.com/promotional-toolkit-2026/

Peters A, Mocenic M, Brois P, Rioja E, Mitchell BG, Dancer SJ, et al. Clean hospitals day 2026: empowerment of environmental services staff. Journal of Hospital Infection 2026;176:201–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2026.09.015.

Direct link to the paper: https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(26)00373-7/pdf

Evidence or Efficiency? How We Make IPC Decisions

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Phil Russo and Brett Mitchell are joined by Dr Shalini Elangovan from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore to discuss her global study exploring how IPC professionals make decisions.

Using a discrete choice experiment, Shalini and colleagues examined the trade-offs people make between clinical evidence, cost-effectiveness, implementation time and the additional workload an intervention creates.

What actually makes an IPC professional say “yes” to an intervention? The study found that cost-effectiveness was the most important attribute overall, but also identified striking differences between “evidence seekers” and “efficiency seekers,” particularly between respondents from lower/middle- and high-income countries. This suggests that the setting in which you work may influence what you value when deciding whether an IPC intervention is worth implementing.

Link to the paper is here:
Elangovan S, Senanayake S, Venkatachalam I, Ling ML, Graves N, Kularatna S. Preferences for Infection Prevention in Hospital-Acquired Infections. JAMA Netw Open 2026;9(4):e267432. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.7432.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2847770

RCTs in Infection Prevention and Control - Are we getting the evidence that we need?

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode of Infection Control Matters, Martin Kiernan talks to Brett Mitchell about a new review of RCTs in IPC over the past two decades. The review identified 239 trials, with a striking increase in recent years—but the research is concentrated in a relatively small number of areas. We also explore a much bigger issue: what happens to new evidence once it has been published? If guidelines remain unchanged while new RCTs accumulate, are we really translating research into practice?

We discuss what is driving this growth, where the important evidence gaps remain, and whether IPC guidelines are keeping pace with the emerging evidence. Could living guidelines be part of the answer?

Paper we discuss:
Mitchell BG, Matterson G, Carroll MR, Donnelly H, Marimuthu K, Tehan PE. Global randomised controlled trials in infection prevention and control: a bibliographic review from the past two decades. J Hosp Infect 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2026.03.037.

Direct download link: https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0195-6701%2826%2900129-5

Another paper that we mention on the effect of delays in implementation:
Reagan KA, Chan DM, Vanhoozer G, Pryor RJ, Doll ME, Godbout EJ, et al. Resistors and constipators: Financial impact in an academic medical center, a mathematical model. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2022;43(4):533–5. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.34.

Who Do You Listen To? The Hidden Influencers of Hand Hygiene

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett and Martin discuss a cluster RCT from the Journal of Hospital Infection that took a very different approach. The researchers used social network analysis to identify the people operating room nurses naturally turned to for advice and support. Six of these informal influencers were then trained as peer champions—not as auditors or compliance police, but as positive role models who could encourage better practice through their existing relationships.

Over 12 months, hand hygiene compliance increased from 41.8% to 79.2% in the intervention group, compared with an increase from 42.6% to 59.3% with standard education. The study also reported improvements in knowledge and team climate.

But there is plenty to debate. Can we really attribute the reported reduction in surgical site infections to the intervention? And could we use the same idea to influence other IPC behaviours—perhaps getting the right people to model cleaning shared equipment, PPE use or other everyday safety behaviours?

Link to the paper is here:
Ye L, Jia X, Zhengyuan C, Dan Y, Jinjing Z, Nana W. Social network analysis-informed peer champions for hand hygiene in the operating room: a cluster randomised controlled trial. J Hosp Infect 2026;171:113–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2026.03.003

The other paper we mention is here:
Seto WH, Ching TY, Yuen KY, Chu YB, Seto WL. The enhancement of infection control in-service education by ward opinion leaders. Am J Infect Control 1991;19(2):86–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/0196-6553(91)90044-d.

C. difficile: Follow the Faeces

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode of Infection Control Matters, Brett and Martin talk to Professor Tom Riley about why we need to look well beyond the hospital to understand where Clostridioides difficile comes from.

Tom discusses the growing importance of C. difficile as a community-acquired infection and explains how antimicrobial use in agriculture, animals, animal faeces, food and the environment may all form part of the transmission pathway. We explore some findings from his research, including C. difficile contamination of potatoes and domestic kitchens.

We also discuss the challenges of controlling highly persistent spores in the environment, the potential role of foodborne transmission, and Tom's recent involvement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, where genomic evidence from an onion-associated outbreak provided compelling evidence for foodborne transmission.

From animal antibiotics and manure to potatoes, kitchen sinks and the wider environment, this conversation challenges us to rethink where C. difficile comes from—and where infection prevention needs to look next.

Perhaps the most important message? To understand C. difficile, we need to follow the faeces.

Access the UN FAO report on toxigenic Clostridia in food here: https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/cce3d2ab-e8d7-4ab2-a349-dacba4eda392

WISDOM: Using AI to Prioritise Surgical Wound Review

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +1000

Artificial intelligence has enormous potential in healthcare, but where can it genuinely improve infection prevention without replacing clinical judgement? In this episode, Phil Russo and Martin Kiernan are joined by Professor Judith Tanner (University of Nottingham) and Melissa Rochon (Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust) to discuss a recent paper about the WISDOM study, a randomised feasibility trial evaluating AI-assisted digital surveillance for surgical wounds after hospital discharge.

Following on from a previous podcast in which patients submit wound photographs from home (https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/surgical-site-infection-surveillance-by-patient-generated-images/), this paper describes how AI can prioritise images that need urgent clinical review, and why this approach could transform surgical site infection surveillance while reducing unnecessary hospital visits. The guests discuss developing an AI model from almost 40,000 wound images, ensuring equitable performance across different skin tones, patient acceptance of digital follow-up, workforce redesign, and how remote monitoring could evolve into supported self-care. Rather than replacing clinicians, AI is shown to be a practical tool for helping healthcare teams focus on the patients who need them most.

Rochon M, Tanner J, Cariaga K, Jurkiewicz J, Beckhelling J, Harris R, et al. AI-enabled digital wound monitoring after cardiac surgery: a randomised controlled feasibility, safety, and acceptability trial. J Hosp Infect 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2026.04.020.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0195-6701%2826%2900159-3

Candidozyma auris: Disinfection and the Biofilm Problem

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +1000

Candidozyma auris has become one of the greatest environmental challenges facing infection prevention teams. Its ability to survive on surfaces, form resilient biofilms and spread within healthcare settings has raised important questions about whether our current cleaning and disinfection practices are enough.

In this episode, Martin and Brett are joined by Aristotelis Papadimitriou from Athens to discuss his newly published systematic review on environmental decontamination of Candidozyma auris. They explore which disinfectants are the most effective, why biofilms change everything, the importance of fungal clades, and the significant gap between laboratory efficacy studies and the realities of cleaning busy healthcare environments.

Open access paper we discuss:

Papadimitriou A, Drosopoulou LP, Tseroni M, Kontopidou FV, Tsakris A, Vrioni G. Breaking the Chain of Infection: A Systematic Review of Environmental Decontamination of Candidozyma auris (2017-2025). J Fungi (Basel) 2026;12(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/jof12020131

Brush, Rinse, Prevent Pneumonia: The HAPPEN Trial Story

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +1000

The tables are turned in this episode. Prof Trisha Peel and Dr Sally Havers guest host this podcast and interview Brett Mitchell, Nicole White and Martin Kiernan about their recent publication in Lancet Infectious Disease.

The publication showcases results from a recent multi-centre RCT demonstrating the benefit of improving oral care in reducing the risk of non-ventilator associated pneumonia (NV-HAP). The authors are probed about why they did the study, key findings, implementation and other aspects not always published in peer reviewed journals.

White NM, Russo PL, Matterson G, Browne K, Cheng AC, Kiernan M, et al. Effectiveness of oral care for the prevention of non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAPPEN): a multicentre, stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised trial in Australia. Lancet Infect Dis 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(26)00235-5

Information about the study available here: https://happenstudy.com/

ESCMID Global 2026 Posters (Part 2): Patient Partnership, Communication and Collaboration

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 19:20:13 +1000

In the second ESCMID Global 2026 poster tour episode, Brett and Martin found three different and thought-provoking posters that highlight the importance of people, partnerships and communication in advancing infection prevention and control.

We begin by talking to Dr Aline Wolfensberger from Zurich about a Swiss project that used human-centred design and co-production to develop practical tools that engage patients and relatives in the prevention of non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia. Through a process of interviews, observations and co-design workshops, the team created innovative, low-cost solutions to promote oral care and mobilisation, demonstrating how patients and families can become active partners in prevention.

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/ina7czek4ac7q83r/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Patient_partnership_for_prevention_PPP_-_co-designed_solutions_to_engage_patients_and_relatives_in_non-ventilator_hospital-acquired_pneumonia_preventiona7pol.pdf

We then examined an innovative researcher–journalist residency programme that explored the challenges of communicating science to wider audiences. The project revealed the differing cultures, expectations and pressures faced by researchers and journalists, while identifying opportunities to strengthen collaboration and improve public understanding of infectious diseases and healthcare.

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/ykf54b6zejskjhwt/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Promoting_scientific_communication-_insights_from_a_joint_researcher_journalist_residency8nweq.pdf

Finally, we discussed findings from the EU-JAMRAI 2 initiative with the author. This work explored the collaboration needs of infection prevention professionals across Europe. The study highlights the value of mentorship, peer-to-peer learning and international networking in supporting professional development and sharing best practice.

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/yungzdpc6fatf3zd/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Assessment_of_peer-to-peer_collaboration_needs_across_IPC_professionals_in_Europe_an_EU-JAMRAI-2_initiative9cro2.pdf

ESCMID Global 2026 – Selected Gems from the Poster Hall (Part 1)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In the first of two special episodes recorded live from the poster hall at ESCMID Global 2026 in Munich, Brett and Martin swap the lecture theatre for the exhibition floor as they explore some of the most interesting infection prevention and antimicrobial resistance research on display.

In this episode we discuss the following posters. Links to copies of the posters are provided.

The hidden cost of contact precautions – Researchers from Greece quantify the enormous bed capacity burden created by patients requiring isolation or cohorting for multidrug-resistant organisms, showing that although only 4% of admissions required contact precautions, they accounted for over 10% of hospital bed-days.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/qgadvjnz5btbbhru/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Bed_resources_needed_for_patients_on_contact_precautions_because_of_MDR_pathogens8p3ta.pdf
Can Google Maps reviews tell us something about infection prevention? – An innovative analysis from Germany and Spain explores thousands of online hospital reviews, demonstrating that infection prevention issues feature prominently in patient feedback and are often associated with more negative experiences.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/4fgzatetxdrdiunr/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Infection_prevention_in_hospitals_in_Germany_and_Spain-_a_Google_Maps_review_analysis6b9ko.pdf
What lives on shared surfaces in long-term care? – A Dutch environmental microbiology study reveals frequent contamination of high-touch communal surfaces with clinically important Gram-negative organisms, raising important questions about cleaning practices and transmission risks in care facilities.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/w9vgebabddcywhny/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Gram-negative_microorganisms_on_high-touch_shared_surfaces_in_Dutch_long-term_care_facilities7clqb.pdf
Using bacteriophages as environmental disinfectants – Researchers from China describe how a targeted phage cocktail reduced environmental contamination and clinical isolation rates of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in an intensive care setting, offering a fascinating glimpse into future biological approaches to environmental decontamination.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/vj92ubxxfw8t9szj/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Phage_intervention_effectively_reduces_nosocomial_transmission_of_carbapenem-resistant_em_Acinetobacter_baumannii_-em_ays63.pdf

Is more screening worth it? – A Norwegian modelling study examines the economics of expanded admission screening for antimicrobial resistance, suggesting that broader screening of higher-risk patients can prevent healthcare-associated infections and remain cost-effective in a low-prevalence setting.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/bfmjj2t797589cfy/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Cost-effectiveness_of_proposed_screening_guideline_for_resistant_microbes_compared_to_current_screening_guideline_for_patients_upon_admission_to_Norwegian_hospitals8oum8.pdf
Making guidelines engaging again – An Irish trainee-led "Infection Guideline Club" demonstrates how peer-delivered education can improve engagement with clinical guidelines, build confidence, and create valuable opportunities for discussion and learning.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/w9zpcbrbrimdken8/ESCMID_Global_2026_-_Successful_development_of_peer_delivered_Infection_Guideline_Club_-_a_six-month_pilot_and_anonymous_participant_survey8ruuu.pdf

Highlights from ESCMID 2026: Key Papers in Infection Control

Wed, 20 May 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett and Martin talked to Dr Nico Tom Mutters about the papers he selected in the always popular 'Year in Infection Control' session at ESCMID Global 2026. Nico is Director of the Institute for Hygiene and Public Health at Bonn University Hospital and also Chair of EUCIC (European Committee on Infection Control). It is always fascinating to see which papers are selected in these sessions and we discussed a few papers that he selected from the preceding 12 months, a list of which follow.

SuDDICU Investigators for the Australia New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group. Selective Decontamination of the Digestive Tract during Ventilation in the ICU. N Engl J Med 2026;394(15):1491–502. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2506398

Hammond NE. et al. Selective Decontamination of the Digestive Tract in Adult Mechanically Ventilated Patients - An Updated Systematic Review with Bayesian Meta-Analysis. NEJM Evid 2026;5(5):EVIDoa2500264. https://doi.org/10.1056/EVIDoa2500264

Arreba P. et al. Gel nail polish does not have a negative impact on the nail bacterial burden nor on the quality of hand hygiene with an alcohol-based hand rub. J Hosp Infect 2025;157:40–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2024.12.006

Gross N. et al. Effects of microplastic concentration, composition, and size on Escherichia coli biofilm-associated antimicrobial resistance. Appl Environ Microbiol 2025;91(4):e0228224. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.02282-24

Reese SM. et al. Why do infection preventionists leave a job? A qualitative evaluation of infection preventionist attrition in health care. Am J Infect Control 2025;53(9):919–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2025.06.011

Other papers selected by Nico were:

Mason M. et al Moral distress among infection prevention and control professionals: A scoping review. Infect Dis Health 2025;30(2):152–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idh.2024.10.002

Kotay SM. et al. Biofilm removal in hospital sink drains drives unintended surges in antibiotic resistance. NPJ Antimicrob Resist 2026;4(1):5. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44259-025-00176-2

Ferreira JMG. et al. Quality of hand hygiene performance: A systematic literature review. Am J Infect Control 2026;54(2):192–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2025.08.025

Ullman AJ. et al. A Comparison of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter Materials. N Engl J Med 2025;392(2):161–72. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2406815

Recanatini C. et al. Impact of Pseudomonas aeruginosa carriage on intensive care unit-acquired pneumonia: a European multicentre prospective cohort study. Clin Microbiol Infect 2025;31(3):433–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2024.11.007

Orsel LM. et al. The role of gowns in preventing nosocomial transmission of respiratory viruses: a systematic review. J Hosp Infect 2025;163:57–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.05.023

Mellon G. et al. Assessment of air infectious contamination during wound care in a burn intensive care unit using shotgun metagenomics. Am J Infect Control 2025;53(11):1144–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2025.08.003

Kim JH. et al. Association between multidrug-resistant organism status and quality of end-of-life care in patients with advanced cancer referred to palliative care: a retrospective cohort study with nationwide data linkage. Clin Microbiol Infect 2026;32(5):822–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2025.11.032

Sutjipto S. et al. Plastic Waste and COVID-19 Incidence Among Hospital Staff After Deescalation in PPE Use. JAMA Netw Open 2025;8(4):e255264. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.5264

ESCMID Global 2026: What Matters for Practice

Wed, 06 May 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett and Martin reflect on the IPC components a major conference. Recorded after our visit to ESCMID Global 2026 held in Munich, Germany in April, this episode brings together key insights and conversations from across the first three days of the meeting. We reflect on emerging evidence, practical challenges, and the real-world implications for infection prevention and control, with a focus on what genuinely shifts practice rather than what simply looks good on paper. As always, the aim is to translate complex science into usable ideas for clinicians, infection preventionists, and anyone working to reduce harm from healthcare-associated infection. Sunsequent episodes will include discussions with presenters and the poster sessions will follow.

In this episode we included sessions in which you might find these links interesting:

Albers B, et al. Examining tailoring as an implementation strategy for reducing healthcare-associated infections across European acute care hospitals (REVERSE): study protocol for a hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation trial. Trials 2025;26(1):418. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-025-09132-x

https://www.reverseproject.eu/

Kalisvar Marimuthu's Bluesky post on his toilet session (well worth a look):
https://bsky.app/profile/kalisvar.bsky.social/post/3mjthohalq22e

Why Healthcare Cleaning Is Different: Reflections from Interclean 2026

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, recorded live from Interclean in Amsterdam, Brett and Martin highlight the contibution of Clean Hospitals to healthcare hygiene and reflect on the contrast between healthcare cleaning and the wider cleaning industry. While the scale, innovation, and investment in cleaning technology are impressive, much of it is not designed with healthcare realities in mind. We discuss why cleaning in hospitals is fundamentally different — shaped by interruptions, human behaviour, complex environments, and higher-risk pathogens.

Key links

www.cleanhospitals.com

Paper referred to:

Xie, A., C. Rock, Y.-J. Hsu, P. Osei, J. Andonian, V. Scheeler, S. C. Keller, S. E. Cosgrove and A. P. Gurses (2018). "Improving Daily Patient Room Cleaning: An Observational Study Using a Human Factors and Systems Engineering Approach." IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors 6(3-4): 178–191. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6760906/pdf/nihms-1041686.pdf

Automated bloodstream infection surveillance - Measuring what matters?

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +1100

How well do we really measure bloodstream infections and could it be routinely automated?

In this episode, Brett and Martin look at two papers on automated hospital-onset bacteraemia (HOB) surveillance, one a retrospective review in a single hospital in Berlin (Rüther et al) and a national UK study (Cregan, Oxford and UKHSA) exploring whether surveillance could move from local, manual processes to a fully automated national system, which was spectacularly accurate.

Ruther, F. D., M. Behnke, L. A. Pena Diaz, F. Schwab, C. Geffers and S. J. S. Aghdassi (2026). "Advancing hospital-onset bacteraemia surveillance: a five-year retrospective study following the hospital-wide implementation of an automated surveillance system at a German university hospital." Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 15(1). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13756-026-01708-9

Cregan, J., O. Nsonwu, D. Chudasama, S. Hopkins, B. Muller-Pebody, R. Hope, C. Brown, D. W. Eyre, T. P. Quan and A. S. Walker (2026). "The potential of a centrally implemented system for national surveillance of bloodstream infections in England, compared to current local surveillance, 2023-2024." J Hosp Infect 169: 5–14. https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(25)00417-7/fulltext

Surfaces - High touch or high risk?

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:09:37 +1100

In this episode, Martin and Brett talk about what is a high risk and what is a high touch surface. Are they the same? The discussion is based on the following paper:

Zheng et al (2025). “High-touch” surfaces are not always “high-risk” surfaces in ICU environment. Journal of hospital infection.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(26)00079-4/fulltext

Do we feel that we are experts? Take two

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +1100

Back in July 2022 when the world was opening up again Brett, Phil and Martin were all in Melbourne and met up for a chat. The topic was 'Are we experts', however due to incompetence (Martin) the recording was terrible and his rather poor editing skills (learnt entirely by watching YouTube videos from Mike Russell) didn't help much. Now however by using Adobe AI voice enhancement it has been possible to rescuscitate the recording, and we felt that it was worth a reissue.

Resourcing of hospital infection prevention and control programs

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +1100

In this podcast, Phil and Brett speak with Dr Lyn-Li Lim from VICNISS (Victorian Healthcare Associated Infection Surveillance System)in Australia. Dr Lim and colleagues recently explored the infection prevention and control resourcing levels in 113 facilities, including FTE per 100 beds. This podcast explores the differences in resourcing for different categories of hospitals.

A link to the publication is here. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019665532500570X

Hospital or Crime Scene? What Forensic Science Reveals About “Clean”

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Sarah Fieldhouse, Associate Professor of Forensic Science and Dr Emmanuel Babafemi, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences both of the University of Staffordshire, UK. We discuss a recent paper looking at hospital cleanliness. Using forensic light, the study uncovered invisible contamination on surfaces that looked clean to the naked eye. We discuss what fluorescence reveals, what ATP misses, and how this approach could reshape environmental monitoring in healthcare.

The open access paper is available here:
Fieldhouse S, Bastaki BB, Ledgerton A, Clarke P, Lewis T. Assessing the effectiveness of hospital cleaning using fluorescence: a proof-of-concept study and comparison with ATP testing. J Hosp Infect 2025;166:38-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.08.008.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0195-6701%2825%2900267-1

AMR at a National level - The 2025 ESPAUR Report

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin talks to Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope and colleagues at the UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency) about the 2025 ESPAUR report, focusing on what the latest data mean for clinicians, infection prevention teams, and health system leaders. We explore what the latest data reveal about antimicrobial resistance and prescribing trends in England, including changes in resistance patterns among major bacterial pathogens and what this means for patient safety and clinical outcomes.

We discuss what’s improving, where challenges remain, and how infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship teams can use national surveillance data to drive meaningful local action.

You can download the report in it's entirety here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6936ac34b612700b2cb73607/ESPAUR-report-2024-to-2025.pdf

There is also a supplement and summary in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy which can be accessed here:
https://academic.oup.com/jacamr/issue/8/Supplement_2

The TARGET antibiotics toolkit hub is abailable here:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=553

e-Bug is available here: https://www.e-bug.eu/

2025 Christmas Special

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:36:46 +1100

This is our traditional end of year Christmas special. In this episode we consider highlights from year and have a bit of fun - including a stakeout in London.

We talk about our views on the most significant systematic review, our favourite presentation/poster, RCTs would like to see and predictions for 2026.

Unseen Reservoirs, Unseen Risks: Integrating Wastewater Surveillance with Patient-Level Insights into C. auris Spread

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin talks to Dr Jon Otter, Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, UK. We examine two complementary pieces of work that provide further insight into Candidozyma auris transmission in acute hospitals. The first demonstrates, for the first time in the UK, that ward-level wastewater reliably mirrors patient colonisation and can reveal genetically related outbreak strains using culture and PCR. The second, a case–control study, identifies clinical and environmental risk factors that shape colonisation, highlighting the significance of shared patient equipment.

The paper can be found here: Davidson HC, Griffin AE, Symes L, Laing KG, Witney AA, Gould K, et al. Detection of Candidozyma (formerly Candida) auris from ward wastewater during an outbreak using culture and molecular methods. J Hosp Infect 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.10.024

A copy of the poster can be downloaded here

Can ward rounds transform IPC education?

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin speaks with Helen Dunn, Consultant Nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a Children's Hospital in London, UK. Helen is the lead author of a recent study published in the Journal of Infection Prevention, exploring whether structured ward rounds can be used as an innovative method for delivering Infection Prevention and Control education directly in the clinical environment. This work implemented a bedside ward-round model with Band 6 nurses in a paediatric cardiac high-dependency unit, using a structured assessment tool to prompt real-time, patient-focused discussions. The findings highlight that this approach created frequent education opportunities, strengthened relationships between clinical teams and IPC practitioners, and reduced the number of IPC interventions required over time.

Dunn H, Blackburn P, Cloutman-Green E. Can ward rounds be used by infection prevention control teams to deliver education and enhance knowledge to clinical staff. J Infect Prev 2025;26(6):17571774251366930. https://doi.org/10.1177/17571774251366930.

Article on Schulman's Signature Pedagogies here

Reducing harm at the Front Line: Oral Care driving down C. difficile and Line Care - the Power of Better Data

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin spoke to the authors of two compelling posters showcased at the 2025 Infection Prevention Society Conference in Brighton, each discussing practical, data-driven approaches to reducing avoidable harm. Download the posters and have a listen to two authors with a passion for their projects.

First, Catherine Lemsalu, a Dental Nurse from the IPC Team at University Hospital Plymouth discusses her quality-improvement work on an acute stroke ward, demonstrating how structured mouth-care assessment, targeted staff education, and consistent daily oral care contributed to reductions in non-ventilated hospital-acquired pneumonia and Clostridioides difficile infections. Her poster highlights how simple, early interventions—done well—can strengthen antimicrobial stewardship, improve patient outcomes, and build ward-level capability through mouth-care champions.

We then explored the development of a national surveillance framework and digital tool for vascular access device–related bloodstream infections (VAD-BSI) with Sue Rowlands from The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Their multidisciplinary initiative has created a standardised, user-friendly approach to classifying VAD-BSI, identifying risk factors, and generating automated visual outputs that support local reporting, audit, and education. Early pilot data show strong usability, enhanced insight into bloodstream infection epidemiology, and meaningful impact on line-care practice.

Posters can be downloaded here:

Reduction of hospital-acquired pneumonia and Clostridioides difficile infections through focused line care

Developing a surveillance framework and digital tool for Vascular Access Device-Related Bloodstream Infections (VAD-BSI): improving patient safety through local data and national insight

Posters from the 2025 Innovation Academy at ICPIC and from the UK IPS Conference

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Brett and Martin discuss a few posters that interested them from recent major infection prevention conferences.

Brett was at the ICPIC Conference in Geneva and found plenty of interest in the Innovation academy.

Martin was on his travels as well and recorded a few discussions with poster presenters at the 2025 Infection Prevention Society conference at Brighton in the south of the UK (more in the next episode). On this occasion he spoke to Frances Butson from the IPC Team at Gloucester Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. We discussed a new approach to providing the hospital board with assurance of best practice by having 'bottom-up' local assessments rather than using a more traditional IPC team approach. Additionally, to foster better communications in the organisation the team there have a local podcast called IPC In Action, which can be found here: https://shows.acast.com/ipc-in-action-podcast and also on Youtube etc.

The poster can be found here:

Infection Control Matters Live from the 2026 IPS Brighton Conference

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin Kiernan hosts a panel discussion at the 2026 Infection Prevention Society Conference in Brighton, United Kingdom.

The Panel comprised:

Dr Stephane Bouchoucha, Associate Professor in Nursing and Associate Head of School (International) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University in Melbourne, New South Wales Australia. Stephane is the current President of the Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control
Dr Mark Garvey, Consultant Clinical Scientist in Microbiology and Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control for the Infection Prevention and Control Service at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB)
Kerry Holden, Lead Nurse and Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. Kerry is the current IPS Vice-President.
Dr Maura Smiddy, Director of the MSc in Infection Prevention and Control at University College Cork in Ireland and Chair of the IPS Research and Development Group.
Lorraine Williams, Deputy Director of Infection Prevention & Control and Lead Nurse for IPC. Lorraine is a former IPS Vice-President.

Topics we discuss include:

Why are infection rates not falling?
What can be done to reduce infections in long-term care that require readmission to hospital
If each panel member were given £1,000,000 for an implementation, what would they do?
If each panel member had to stop doing something that the infection prevention team currently does, what would that be?

Cutting CDC and IPC funding in the US - Implications and what can we do?

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, Brett and Phil have a chat with Professor David Weber on the sidelines of the ICPIC conference in Geneva. We chat about the funding cuts for the WHO and the US CDC, including the disbandment of HICPAC - and what this means for IPC. We discuss what is being done and what needs to happen to fill the void and to ensure contemporary IPC evidence and guidelines are available.

Prof Weber, a distinguished leader in infection prevention and healthcare epidemiology, is the current President of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Prof Weber has also held many leadership and committee roles, including with HICPAC.

Safeguarding During Transit: RAF Expertise in High Consequence Infectious Disease Retrieval

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode Martin talks to Squadron Leader Tez Cooling and Flight Lieutenant Emma Foley about their work in the Royal Air Force (RAF) retrieval service for patients with known and suspected High Consequence Infectious Disease who are transferred to specialist units in the UK.

The team discuss how the Air Transportable Isolator (ATI) is used in order to safely carry out repatriations in a timely manner and the training that is required to operate suct a specialist service.

The no diaper (AKA nappy) zone - reducing CAUTI?

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this 2-segment episode, Brett, Phil and Martin firstly mull over a nurse-led, bottom up (pun intended) quality improvement project that aimed to reduce CAUTI in a neonatal ICU in Georgia, USA. Having discussed how great it is to see this type of work written up, Martin then spoke to Katie Cabral the lead author for more insights and to find out if the innovation has been sustained.

Cabral K, Anderson V, Allen I, Hoskins D, Byers K, Gettis M. Entering a No Diaper Zone: Rethinking Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection. Critical care nurse 2025;45(4):21-8. https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2025843

Can modelling tell us what factors influence CAUTI in long and short-term catheters?

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett, Phil and Martin discuss a recent paper from Freya Bull and colleagues, who undertook a modelling exercise to determine what factors determine the colonisation process for long and short-term urinary catheters. It turns out that different factors are in play here and that strategies for CAUTI prevention miht be different for each.

You can read the paper here:

Bull F, Tavaddod S, Bommer N, Perry M, Brackley CA, Allen RJ. Different factors control long-term versus short-term outcomes for bacterial colonisation of a urinary catheter. Nat Commun 2025;16(1):3940. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59161-y.

Brett's group's previous work on short-term catheters is here:

Fasugba O, Cheng AC, Gregory V, Graves N, Koerner J, Collignon P, et al. Chlorhexidine for meatal cleaning in reducing catheter-associated urinary tract infections: a multicentre stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial. Lancet Infect Dis 2019;19(6):611-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30736-9.

Leading Public Health, ID and IPC during challenging times

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Drs Priya Nori and Gonzalo Bearman. Priya is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Orthopedic Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA. Gonzalo is Chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Chief Quality and Safety Officer for Research at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, USA.

We chat about a recent book entitled "Courageous Leadership in Infectious Diseases and Public Health During Challenging Times" that they edited, in which they conducted in-depth interviews with luminaries whose careers span multiple aspects of infectious diseases and public health. We discuss the themes, lessons and nuggets gleaned from long and successful careers in Public Health, Infectious Diseases and Infection Prevention.

A short section of the book as a preview is available here: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-0364-4766-3-sample.pdf

The book is published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, UK

ISBN: 1-0364-4766-9 and ISBN13: 978-1-0364-4766-3

What's new in Surgical Site Infection Prevention? Update from EUCIC

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Gabriel Birgand, Clinical Co-ordinator of EUCIC (European Committee on Infection Control) which is part of ESCMID Global (European Society for Clinical Microbilogy and Infectious Dieseases). Gabriel is the lead of the Regional Center for Infection Prevention and Control (Pays de la Loire region), Nantes University Hospital and also Head of the National Center for Surveillance and Prevention of AMR (antimicrobial resistance) and HAI (healthcare associated infections) in primary care and nursing homes.

EUCIC has recently published a set of slides that have reviewed recent papers relevant to SSI prevention and we had the opportunity to discuss these papers. The link to the slides is below.

You can find our more about the activities of EUCIC here: https://www.escmid.org/science-research/eucic/eucic-educational-activities/

To download the freely available slides, follow this link: https://www.escmid.org/fileadmin/escmid/media/pdf/eucic/Review_EUCIC_02_07_2025.pptx

Posters from the Hong Kong Infection Control Nurses Association conference

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 15:01:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett reviews a few posters from the Hong Kong Infection Control Nurses Association conference. Topics include fit testing, bloodstream infection surveillance and environmental cleaning.

The poster discussed in the podcast can be viewed and downloaded here.

The Plume Room - adventures in toilet hygiene

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode recorded in an Irish Bar in Nelson (NZ), Brett and Martin dive headfirst into the swirling world of toilet aerosols, airborne pathogens, and potential mitigations.

We begin with a older study by Scott, Bloomfield, and Barlow examining the effectiveness of disinfection in real-world settings and how this depends heavily on practical application and behavioural compliance. Then we move to move to a recent contribution by Higham and colleagues, who shift the focus from surface disinfection to airborne exposure. Their paper presents a quantitative microbial risk assessment framework that models aerosolised viral particles generated by toilet flushing that demonstrates the importance of ventilation. Finally we discuss the work of Boone and colleagues, who evaluate a practical intervention—an air sanitizer spray—and its impact on reducing airborne virus concentrations following flushing events.

Papers that we discuss:

Scott E, Bloomfield SF, Barlow CG. Evaluation of disinfectants in the domestic environment under 'in use' conditions. J Hyg (Lond) 1984;92(2):193-203. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022172400064214

Higham CA, López-García M, Noakes CJ, Tidswell E, Fletcher L. A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) framework for exposure from toilet flushing using experimental aerosol concentration measurements. Indoor Environments 2025;2(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indenv.2024.100069

Boone SA, Betts-Childress ND, Ijaz MK, McKinney J, Gerba CP. The impact of an air sanitizer spray on the risk of virus transmission by aerosols generated by toilet flushing. Am J Infect Control 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2025.04.008

Automated national HCAI surveillance - potential or pipedream?

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett, Phil and Martin discuss a recent paper from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) that examined the timeliness of data points that could be used for a centrally implemented, automated HCAI surveillance system in England, as a potential alternative to the
24 current locally-implemented system. The aim was to examine the potential for a national, automated surveillance system that could reduce the burden of the existing labour-intensive process for mandatory surveillance in England although the results were felt to be generalisable.

Link to the paper we discuss:
Quan TP, Eyre DW, Shadwell S, West D, Hopkins S, Chudasama D, et al. Timeliness of a potential automated system for national surveillance of healthcare-associated infections in England. J Hosp Infect 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.04.008.

A re-introduction to Infection Control Matters 1500 days on

Wed, 28 May 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, we discuss the purpose of infection control matters and why we started the podcast. Recorded 1500 days after we started the podcast, Brett, Phil and Martin reflect on the podcast to date.

For new listeners, is also a chance to learn more about our approach to the podcast and how to make the most of our website.

National vs local IPC Guidelines - Lost in Translation?

Wed, 14 May 2025 14:59:00 +1000

In this episode, we explore the crucial disconnect between national infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines and the local policies implemented in residential aged care (RAC) facilities. Brett and Martin talk to Dr Sanne Peters and Dr Kirsty Buising about their recent paper that reports on their recent analysis using the AACTT (Action, Actor, Context, Target, Time) behavioural framework, which reveals a lack of alignment and specificity in many local IPC documents.

We discuss:

Why well-intentioned policies often fail to drive behaviour
The implications of vague IPC statements in high-risk environments
How local RAC settings can better translate national guidelines into actionable, behaviourally specific practices
The role of co-design, leadership, and implementation science in bridging the gap

The paper we discuss:

Peters S, Lim LL, Francis JJ, Bennett N, Fetherstonhaugh D, Buising K, et al. Analysis of infection prevention and control documentation in residential aged care based on a behaviour specification framework. Infect Dis Health 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idh.2025.03.002.

Candidozyma auris from the lab to the front line: A discussion with UKHSA experts

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode Martin talks to Dr Andy Borman, (Acting Head and Consultant Clinical Scientist, UKHSA National UK Mycology Reference Lab. also Hon Professor of Medical Mycology, MRC CMM, University of Exeter), Dr Colin Brown (Deputy Director of Emerging and Epidemic Infections at UK Health Security Agency; Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases & Medical Microbiology at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust) and Dr Mariyam Mirfenderesky (Consultant in Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases North Middlesex and RF (AMS Lead) and UKHSA on HCAI). The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is the national organisation in the United Kingdom responsible for protecting public health by preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious diseases and other health threats.

We chat about how Candidozyma auris (formerly known as Candida auris) is identified in the lab, why it matters clinically, and what it means for infection prevention and control teams. From early lab detection to real-world frontline challenges, we discuss the key issues around this emerging pathogen — and what we need to do next.

UK C. auris guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/candida-auris-laboratory-investigation-management-and-infection-prevention-and-control

Use of AI to create a podcast discussion - are we out of a job?

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode of Infection Control Matters, we explore the potential of AI tools to support education and professional dialogue in infection prevention and control.

We used NotebookLM, an experimental tool from Google designed to help users interact with their documents in new ways—summarising, clarifying, and even generating structured discussions based on uploaded content. Using research and guidance documents, we demonstrate how NotebookLM can be used to create a voice-generated conversation on key themes in IPC.

The paper that we uploaded was the recently published cost-effectiveness research that relates to the CLEEN study that we have previously highlihghted. A link to the open access paper can be found below.

The main part of this podcast was a dialogue created by NotebookLM following the upload of the paper. None of the voices are human (apart from Martin at the beginning and Brett at the end).

This episode offers a glimpse into how AI might be used to support reflection, training, and knowledge sharing across the healthcare community... but with caveats!

The paper we discuss can be found here:

Brain D, Sivapragasam N, Browne K, White NM, Russo PL, Cheng AC, et al. Economic Evaluation of Enhanced Cleaning and Disinfection of Shared Medical Equipment. JAMA Netw Open 2025;8(4):e258565. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.8565

NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/

The Sinkbug Survey: Antibiotics, AMR, Chemicals and Plumbing

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode of Infection Control Matters, Martin Kiernan speaks with Dr. Nicole Stoesser about a large-scale, multi-centre study exploring the role of hospital sink infrastructure in antimicrobial resistance and pathogen dissemination. Representing the collaborative NITCAR-led "Sinkbug Consortium" we discuss surprising findings from 29 UK hospitals—including widespread antibiotic residues in sink traps—and reflect on the implications for sink design, waste disposal practices, and infection prevention strategies

The paper we discuss is here:

Rodger G, Chau K, Aranega Bou P, Moore G, Roohi A, The SinkBug Consortium, et al. Survey of healthcare-associated sink infrastructure, and sink trap antibiotic residues and biochemistry, in 29 UK hospitals. J Hosp Infect 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.02.002.

Information on Nitcar: https://nitcollaborative.org.uk/wp/

Other papers of interest:

Aranega-Bou P, George RP, Verlander NQ, Paton S, Bennett A, Moore G, et al. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae dispersal from sinks is linked to drain position and drainage rates in a laboratory model system. J Hosp Infect 2019;102(1):63-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2018.12.007

Grabowski M, Lobo JM, Gunnell B, Enfield K, Carpenter R, Barnes L, et al. Characterizations of handwashing sink activities in a single hospital medical intensive care unit. J Hosp Infect 2018;100(3):e115-e22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2018.04.025

Surveillance for HCAI - What is important, feasible and useful - and what isn't..

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 15:03:00 +1100

In this episode, Brett and Martin chat with Dr. Jessica Schults and Dr. Sally Havers about a recent study published in the American Journal of Infection Control. The study used a modified Delphi process to identify key healthcare infection surveillance priorities in Queensland.

Through a two-round methodology, infection prevention experts identified 13 key infection measures for a standardized minimum dataset. This dataset aims to improve statewide HAI surveillance, enhance data consistency, and support targeted infection prevention efforts. The findings offer a model that could inform broader national and international surveillance strategies.

The in-press paper is currently available here

Schults JA, Havers S, Henderson B, Healy S, Runnegar N, Hurst T, et al. Expert consensus and recommendations for Healthcare-Associated Infection surveillance in Queensland, Australia: A modified Delphi study. Am J Infect Control 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2025.02.012.

nv-HAP surveillance too time-consuming? Semi-automated may be easier than you think

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Phil and Martin talk to Dr Aline Wolfensberger, Senior Attending Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology at University Hospital Zurich and a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care at the Univetsity of Zurich. We discuss a recent paper that has analysed a range of algorithms for detecting non-ventilator associated pneumonia (nvHAP) that have the potential for significantly reducing the surveillance burden. This work also demonstrated the value of an annual local hospital-wide point prevalence survey that provides data on which areas to target.

Relevant reading:

[1] Mueller A, Pfister M, Faes Hesse M, Zingg W, Wolfensberger A, Swissnoso G. Development and validation of selection algorithms for a non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia semi-automated surveillance system. Clin Microbiol Infect 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2024.11.032

[2] Wolfensberger A, Scherrer AU, Sax H. Automated surveillance of non-ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia (nvHAP): a systematic literature review. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2024;13(1):30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-024-01375-8

[3] Wolfensberger A, Jakob W, Faes Hesse M, Kuster SP, Meier AH, Schreiber PW, et al. Development and validation of a semi-automated surveillance system-lowering the fruit for non-ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia (nvHAP) prevention. Clin Microbiol Infect 2019;25(11):1428 e7- e13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2019.03.019

Methods of assessing effectiveness of hospital cleaning - a review and peek into the future?

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode Martin Talks to Silvana Gastaldi who is a infection prevention and control health referent at UK-MED (a frontline humanitarian medical NGO). We discuss her revent paper in the Journal of Hospital Infection that reviews the literature on methods of assessing how effective environmental cleaning services and procedures are, including ATP, fluorescent UV marking, visual and microbiological methods and also discuss the potential for AI to assist in the healthcare environmental decontamination arena.

The paper we discuss:

Gastaldi S, Accorgi D, D'Ancona F. Tools and strategies for monitoring hospital environmental hygiene services. J Hosp Infect 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.01.011

To listen to a previous podcast in which Dr Phil Carling, developer of the UV marking systems talks about it's development and initial use please click here

Podcast website and collections: www.infectioncontrolmatters.com

Reducing CAUTI in intermittent self-catheterisation. The trial that didn't make it..

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Phil Russo talks to Brett Mitchell and Kate Browne about a study that did not make it over the line. Following a systematic review in 2021 that examined the issue of UTIs in those who self catheterise, a study to examine whether previous work demonstrating a reduction in CAUTI in indwelling catheters through the use of Chlorhexidine for meatal cleansing would be effective was designed. The team discuss the complexities of getting what was essentially a community-based study over the line and why ultimately it did not progress, much to the sadness of the team. previous relevant work is listed below.

Mitchell BG, Prael G, Curryer C, Russo PL, Fasugba O, Lowthian J, et al. The frequency of urinary tract infections and the value of antiseptics in community-dwelling people who undertake intermittent urinary catheterization: A systematic review. Am J Infect Control 2021;49(8):1058-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.01.009.

A poster walk at ACIPC 2024

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode Brett and Phil chat about a few of the posters presented at the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control 2024 Conference held in Melbourne in November 2024. Poster topics include hand hygiene, surveillance, and a pilot RCT on chlorhexidine impregnated dressings.

You can access poster abstracts below and a pdf of the posters here

Improving Hand Hygiene Practices in the Marshall Islands

Epidemiology of Hospital-acquired Bloodstream Infections at a Quaternary Hospital Service

An antimicrobial dressing for prevention of infection complication related peripheral intravenous catheter: an international randomised controlled trial.

Comparing Healthcare Associated Infection data to Hospital Acquired Complication Infection data collection and finding the documentation differences to improve accuracy

Engaging Junior Doctors in IPC

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode recorded at the 2024 Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) Conference in Melbourne, Brett and Phil talk to Dr Sarah Browning (ID Physician at Hunter New England) and two Junior Medical Officers (JMOs) Sam and Lochlan who worked on IPC-related projects whilst on placement.

The 2024 End of Year Special

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Brett, Phil and Martin reflect on the year. We chat about favourite podcasts, papers and conferences in our usual informal manner (well probably even more informal than normal). Papers we mention are listed below.

Cimen C, Bathoorn E, Loeve AJ, Fliss M, Berends MS, Nagengast WB, et al. Uncovering the spread of drug-resistant bacteria through next-generation sequencing based surveillance: transmission of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales by a contaminated duodenoscope. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2024;13(1):31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-024-01386-5

Torres-Teran MM, Greentree DH, Varghese MM, Cadnum JL, Pavis RL, Saade EA, et al. Identifying and Remediating Super-splasher Sinks to Reduce Dispersal of Pathogens From Sink Drains. Open Forum Infect Dis 2024;11(7):ofae293. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofae293

Bush M, Bennett CM, Hutchinson A, Bouchoucha SL. Post implementation quarantine recommendations that support preparedness: A systematic review and quarantine implementation capability framework. Infect Dis Health 2024;29(3):152-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idh.2024.02.004

Dhar S, Jinadatha C, Kilgore PE, Henig O, Divine GW, Todter EN, et al. Lowering the Acquisition of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (MDROs) With Pulsed-xenon (LAMP) Study: A Cluster-Randomized, Controlled, Double-Blinded, Interventional Crossover Trial. Clin Infect Dis 2024;79(4):1024-30. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciae240

Widmer AF, Atkinson A, Kuster SP, Wolfensberger A, Klimke S, Sommerstein R, et al. Povidone Iodine vs Chlorhexidine Gluconate in Alcohol for Preoperative Skin Antisepsis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2024;332(7):541-9. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.8531

Leistner R, Kohlmorgen B, Brodzinski A, Schwab F, Lemke E, Zakonsky G, et al. Environmental cleaning to prevent hospital-acquired infections on non-intensive care units: a pragmatic, single-centre, cluster randomized controlled, crossover trial comparing soap-based, disinfection and probiotic cleaning. EClinicalMedicine 2023;59:101958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101958

Denkel LA, Voss A, Caselli E, Dancer SJ, Leistner R, Gastmeier P, et al. Can probiotics trigger a paradigm shift for cleaning healthcare environments? A narrative review. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2024;13(1):119. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-024-01474-6

In-room air purification to prevent respiratory infection in aged care - Does it help?

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode of ICMs we talk to the authors of a world first multi-centre double blind cross-over randomised control trial, which explored the effect of in-room air purification on acute respiratory tract infections. The rationale and pragmatics of undertaking such a trial are explored, as well as interpretation of the findings.

The lead researcher, Bismi Thottiyil Sultanmuhammed Abdul, a PhD student at the University of Newcastle is joined by some of her supervisors Professors Jenny Sim and Brett Mitchell to explain this study.

The paper can be accessed here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2825943?resultClick=1

Reference:

Khadar, B. T. S. A., Sim, J., McDonald, V. M., McDonagh, J., Clapham, M., & Mitchell, B. G. (2024). Air Purifiers and Acute Respiratory Infections in Residential Aged Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open, 7(11), e2443769-e2443769.

Do you have enough staff in your IP Team? Calculating the staffing requirement for your program

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin talks to Dr Rebecca Crapanzano-Sigafoos (formerly Bartles) who is Executive Director, Center for Research, Practoce and Innovation at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). We talk about about her work on staffing levels for IPC Teams, beginning with her early work looking at workload and then the recent review and paper on data obtained from the beta version of the APIC Staffing Calculator. It turns out that the vast majority of 390+ participating organisations are understaffed.. What might help however was the finding that hospitals that were better staffed had significantly lower infection rates according to accepted published data. Papers we discuss are found below:

Bartles R, Dickson A, Babade O. A systematic approach to quantifying infection prevention staffing and coverage needs. Am J Infect Control 2018;46(5):487-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.11.006.
Knighton SC, Engle J, Berkson J, Bartles R. A narrative review of how infection preventionist (IP) staffing and outcome metrics are assessed by health care organizations and factors to consider. Am J Infect Control 2024;52(1):91-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2023.06.017.
Bartles R, Reese S, Gumbar A. Closing the gap on infection prevention staffing recommendations: Results from the beta version of the APIC staffing calculator. Am J Infect Control 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2024.09.004.

Could you have an ERCP-related outbreak? Sequencing to the rescue but you'll have to trash the scope!

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin talks to Cansu Cimen, a researcher at University Hospitals Groningen in the Netherlands, about a recent paper that documents an outbreak and in particular the critical role of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in tracking and controlling the transmission of MDROs via contaminated duodenoscopes.

Focusing on an outbreak linked to ESBL-producing Citrobacter freundii and Klebsiella pneumoniae after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), standard culture methods failed to detect contamination. After many negative cultures using established methods, destructive dismantling of the implicated scope revealed contamination on hard-to-clean components, highlighting NGS as an effective tool for identifying pathogen transmission pathways.

Download the paper here

Reducing glove use in the ambulance service

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode recorded live at the IPS Conference in Birmingham UK in September 2024, Martin talks to Claire Fitzsimons, Senior Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner at the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust. We discuss a poster that she presented at the conference that looked as ways of reducing glove use in the ambulance service through a range of improvement methodologies.

A copy of the poster can be found here

Can sensors and AI improve cleaning and patient safety?

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, recorded at the 2024 Infection Prevention Society Conference in Birmingham (UK) Brett and Martin talk to Conor McGinn, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Trinity College Dublin and CEO of Akara AI, a robotics company spin-off from Trinity. We talk about a presentation that Conor gave, demonstrating how infrared sensors analysed by AI can provode feedback on techniques in the operating room and how they could improve cleaning standards in hospitals.

A link to the video we discussed is here https://youtu.be/CPCFuXyQarY?si=xh1RjXAaKeKY708a

and you can also see Conor's talk here https://youtu.be/3SCEkbwKhM4?si=uztJcnVIAe-vq5U8

Prevalence, fundamental care, UTI recorded live at the Infection Prevention Society Conference 2024

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 15:00:00 +1000

In our second live session at a major conference, this episode of Infection Control Matters was recorded live at a plenary session to close day 1 of the Infection Prevention Society conference (Birmingham, UK). Our guest panelists include Dr Berit Muller-Pebody an Epidemiologist from the UK Health Security Agency, Prof Jennie Wilson from the University of West London and Dr Jacqui Prieto from The University of Southampton. The panel also fielded many questions from delegates from the floor.

Topics covered include the role of mandatory surveillance, de-implementation, community based IPC, point prevalence studies, the UK PPS, fundamentals of care, urinary tract infection, pneumonia and the direction of IPC.

Is IPC the friend of sustainability?

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:00:00 +1000

Dr Gemma L Saravanos (she/her) is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and a Registered Nurse leading public health research, and education of pre-registration nursing students. She is based at the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sydney and works across the Camperdown (Patyegarang) and Westmead (Baludarri) campuses in Sydney.

In this episode, Phil chats to Gemma about an open access publication she led discussing IPC programs contribution to environmental harm, and argues the case that increased investment in IPC is crucial for sustainable health and environmental systems.

Saravanos, G.L., Islam, M.S., Huang, Y. et al. Infection prevention and control programme priorities for sustainable health and environmental systems. BMC Global Public Health 2, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s44263-023-00031-4

The CLEEN study: Background and discussion with the authors

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:00:00 +1000

Our guest host, Dr Sally Havers this week talks to some of authors from ClEaning and Enhancd DisinfectioN (CLEEN) study (including some regular voices..). The study was recently published in the Lancet Infectious Disease (link below).

The CLEEN study is a world first RCT that explores the impact of cleaning and disinfection of shared medical equipment on HAIs. The study reports significant reductions in HAIs associated with increased cleaning and disinfection of shared equipment.

In this chat, the background to the study is discussed, as well as some implementation and practical considerations. We also touch on the time it takes to clean, which is related to another paper from the CLEEN study recently published in the Journal of Hospital Infection.

For those attending the 2024 IPS conference in Birmingham in a few weeks, Brett will be presenting the full methodology and main effectiveness results at the conference. Early cost-effectiveness data will also be presented, as well as results from a time and motion study exploring how long it takes to clean equipment.

For those attending the 2024 ACIPC conference in Melbourne in November, there is a concurrent session on the main effectiveness results and a lightning session on how long it takes to clean equipment.

Publications Browne, K., White, N. M., Russo, P. L., Cheng, A. C., Stewardson, A. J., Matterson, G., ... & Mitchell, B. G. (2024). Investigating the effect of enhanced cleaning and disinfection of shared medical equipment on health-care-associated infections in Australia (CLEEN): a stepped-wedge, cluster randomised, controlled trial. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Matterson, G., Browne, K., Tehan, P., Russo, P. L., Kiernan, M., & Mitchell, B. G. (2024). Cleaning time and motion: an observational study on the time required to effectively clean shared medical equipment in hospitals. Journal of Hospital Infection.

Removing contact precautions - what trial do we need?

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 01:09:23 +1000

In this episode, Brett and Martin discuss a recent paper from Sarah Browning and colleagues that describes how an RCT on the ending of aspects of contact precautions (gloves and aprons) for MRSA and VRE could be conducted. The paper can be found here:

https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(24)00243-X/abstract

Our other podcasts on contact precautions, gloves and aprons can be found here:

https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/have-gloves-had-their-day/

https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/reflecting-on-a-contact-precautions-talk-at-eccmid-with-dr-gonzalo-bearman/

https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/25-years-of-contact-precautions-but-benefit-or-harm-and-what-is-the-evidence-with-prof-jennie-wilson/

Using AI in Infection Prevention: Opportunities and Dangers

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 18:20:11 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan catches up with Dr Gonzalo Bearman, Professor of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA. We talk about the opportunities and dangers of using large language models like ChatGPT in the infecton prevention space. A link to a recent open access paper on this topic is here

Langford BJ, Branch-Elliman W, Nori P, Marra AR, Bearman G. Confronting the Disruption of the Infectious Diseases Workforce by Artificial Intelligence: What This Means for Us and What We Can Do About It. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024;11:ofae053 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38434616

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10906702/pdf/ofae053.pdf

An award-winning MDT collaborative approach to reducing risks from water in a large organisation

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to representatives of the Multi-disciplinary Team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK, Dr Jessica Martin IPC Matron Adele Dyche and Haematology Matron Katie Sweeting . Building on from previously published work, they describe how efforts from the front line can impact on water safety, including initiatives such as sink removal, education programmes and collaborative working. This work won the 2023 award for Infection Prevention and Control at the annual Nursing Times Awards

The original paper from the group can be found here:

Rice W, Martin J, Hodgkin M, Carter J, Barrasa A, Sweeting K, et al. A protracted outbreak of difficult-to-treat resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a haematology unit: a matched case-control study demonstrating increased risk with use of fluoroquinolone. J Hosp Infect. 2023;132:52-61. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36563938

Healthcare Cleaning - a visit to Interclean that's an eye-opener

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett and Martin report on a visit to the massive Interclean Expo held biannually in Amsterdam and the Healthcare Hygiene meeting. We report on the staggering range of equipment available and the fact that IPC often has little say in this especially if there are potential risks, referring to a previous podcast https://infectioncontrolmatters.podbean.com/e/investigating-a-unique-cpeoutbreak-a-possible-new-place-to-look/

Click here for a video of one hall at Interclean (of 12).

A novel approach to employing environmental service workers and an outbreak (or pseudo-outbreak) of SSI

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin has been on the road again and talks to two poster presenters at the IPAC-Canada 2024 conference. In the first part, Martin talks to Margaret Cameron from Peterborough Regional Health Centre, Ontario about the use of the Multiple Mini Interviewing approach to the selection of suitable candidates to become part of the hospital Environmental Service Attendant team. This innovative approach uses scenarios to test a candidate's suitability for this important role.

In the second part, Karrie Yausie from Saskatchewan health Authority talks about a blip in orthopaedic implant SSI rates that was investigated with some interesting aspects.

You can download Margaret's poster here and Karrie's here

Posters from ESCMID Global 2024 - Part 1

Wed, 29 May 2024 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode Brett, Phil and Martin tour the posters at ESCMID Global 2024 and we discuss some of them with the authors. A link to images of the posters can be found below.

Here are the posters we discuss

AMR Surveillance in waste water and clinical isolates from a tertiary hospital: Preliminary results
Deciphering the temporal short-term dynamics of Acinetobacter baumanii: Impact of colonisation pressure in infection in an endemic Indian intensive care unit (Manasa Tantry discussion)
Post-antibiotic risk for recurrent lower respiratory tract infection during prolonged hospitalisation
Transmission of MDRO during physical and occupational therapy appointmants a 3 Veterans Affairs Hospitals
Aircraft lavatory wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV2 and other coronaviruses by using family-wide RT-PCR, Thailand, October – November 2023
Enhancing feedback and implementation of infection risk scan findings (IRIS) among healthcare workers in nursing homes
Proper glove use: a multicentre before-after regional study (Anne F. Voor and Juliëtte Severin discussion)

Poster link to see the posters we discuss Posters from ESCMID Global - Part 1

Reflections on Day 3 at ESCMID Global 2024

Wed, 15 May 2024 15:00:00 +1000

It was day 3 at ESCMID Global 2024 and Phil, Brett and Martin mull over the day. Amongst the items we discuss are:

What does endogenous really mean?
AI in the IPC space - friend or foe?
Fungal outbreaks - epidemiological challenges and tracing the source
Automated bloodstream infection surveillance
The Euro PPS survey results - data in action (or inaction)

Subsequent to the podcast recording the ECDC PPS results have been published and can be found here:

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/healthcare-associated--infections-antimicrobial-use-point-prevalence-survey-2016-2017.pdf

Reflections on day 2 of ESCMID Global 2024

Thu, 09 May 2024 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Phil, Brett and Martin dicuss more sessions from ESCMID Global (Barcelona, 2024). We talk about sessions on cleaning the occupied bed space, SSI prevention and the difficulty of designing and executing good studies in IPC. We were particularly interested in papers from Italy on the use of probiotics in IPC and some papers from Prof Cassini's group are highlighted below.

Calabro GE, Caselli E, Rognoni C, Laurenti P, Moscato U, ML DIP, et al. [Health Technology Assessment of the introduction of the Probiotic Cleaning Hygiene System (PCHS) in the Italian healthcare setting: update]. J Prev Med Hyg. 2023;64:E1-E35. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37881619
D'Accolti M, Soffritti I, Bini F, Mazziga E, Cason C, Comar M, et al. Shaping the subway microbiome through probiotic-based sanitation during the COVID-19 emergency: a pre-post case-control study. Microbiome. 2023;11:64. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36991513
D'Accolti M, Soffritti I, Bini F, Mazziga E, Mazzacane S, Caselli E. Pathogen Control in the Built Environment: A Probiotic-Based System as a Remedy for the Spread of Antibiotic Resistance. Microorganisms. 2022;10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35208679
Caselli E, Purificato I. Could we fight healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance with probiotic-based sanitation? Commentary. Ann Ist Super Sanita. 2020;56:263-6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32959791|
Caselli E, D'Accolti M, Vandini A, Lanzoni L, Camerada MT, Coccagna M, et al. Impact of a Probiotic-Based Cleaning Intervention on the Microbiota Ecosystem of the Hospital Surfaces: Focus on the Resistome Remodulation. PLoS One. 2016;11:e0148857. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26886448

Discussing the new WHO infectious respiratory particles paper at ECCMID (With Prof Cath Noakes)

Thu, 02 May 2024 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Brett, Martin and Phil mull over the newly published WHO discussion document on respiratory particles and Martin catches up with Prof Cath Noakes from the School of Engineering in Leeds, UK to get her take on it.

You can download the document we are discussing here

https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/global-technical-consultation-report-on-proposed-terminology-for-pathogens-that-transmit-through-the-air

ECCMID 2024 - The year in infection control

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 01:19:28 +1000

In this podcast, Brett and Martin reflect on the "Infection Control Papers of the Year" presented at ECCMID (AKA ESCMID Global) 2024.

Here are a selection of some of the papers mentioned:

Decolonization in Nursing Homes to Prevent Infection and Hospitalization https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37815935/
Reducing Hospitalizations and Multidrug-Resistant Organisms vi a Regional Decolonization in Hospitals and Nursing Homes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38557703/
Prevention of non-ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia in Switzerland: a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36893785/
Skin Antisepsis before Surgical Fixation of Extremity Fractures https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2307679
Trial of Vancomycin and Cefazolin as Surgical Prophylaxis in Arthroplasty https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2301401
Investigation of individual nurses' relative hand hygiene performance using an anonymous automated electronic hand hygiene monitoring system and a nursing assignment schedule https://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(22)00468-0/abstract
Environmental cleaning to prevent hospital-acquired infections on non-intensive care units: a pragmatic, single-centre, cluster randomized controlled, crossover trial comparing soap-based, disinfection and probiotic cleaning https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37089619/

Reflections on the first morning at ECCMID 2024

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 01:21:34 +1000

In our first episode from ECCMID Global 2024, Martin and Brett reflect on the session on design of the healthcare environment sessions from Profs Hilary Humphries and Cath Noakes and a flash poster session featuring VRE Reservoirs in the environment and a tremendous piece of Burkolderia sleuthing from the UKHSA

Visualising infection transmission using genomics

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this podcast, we chat with Dr Brian Forde about HAIviz. HAIviz an interactive dashboard for visualising and integrating healthcare-associated genomic epidemiological data. HAIviz displays and links the outbreak timeline, building map, phylogenetic tree, patient bed movements, and transmission network on a single interactive dashboard.

You can view and use the tool for free at Permana, B., Harris, P. N., Roberts, L. W., Cuddihy, T., Paterson, D. L., Beatson, S. A., & Forde, B. M. (2024). HAIviz: an interactive dashboard for visualising and integrating healthcare-associated genomic epidemiological data. Microbial Genomics, 10(2), 001200.

Investigating a unique CPE strain outbreak - a possible new place to look?

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Mitch Clarke, Clinical Lead and Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Nottingham University Hospitals in the UK. We discuss an outbreak with a unique NDM CPE infection and look at where the investigations went, including a new reservoir that is a potential source - the floor scrubber.

Papers underpinning this work are here:

1. Benbow A, Clarke M, Yates C, Montgomery R, Staniforth K, Boswell T, et al. Hospital-wide healthcare-associated carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales outbreak: risks of electric floor scrubbers in catering facilities and kitchens. J Hosp Infect. 2024;146:59-65. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38341149
2. Prescott K, Billam H, Yates C, Clarke M, Montgomery R, Staniforth K, et al. Outbreak of New Delhi Metallo-Beta-lactamase Carbapenemase Producing Enterobacterales on a bone marrow transplant unit: Role of the environment. Infect Prev Pract. 2021;3:100125. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34368742

C. difficile in England is on the rise, but why? A sign of a system on the edge and could a new variant push it over?

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin Talks to Dr Mark Wilcox OBE, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leeds, Head of Microbiology Research & Development at Leeds University Hospitals NHS Trust and National Clinical Director for Infection Prevention and Control at NHS England. We mull over the possible reasons for the increase in hospital-onset, hospital attributed cases in England, including ribotypes and antibiotic use. Given that the NHS is under great stress, we discuss the damage potential from a ribotype 955 which shares some genetic characteristics with the 027 ribotype that caused so many problems in the UK and worldwide in the early 2000s. One thing that we agree on is that reductions targets (with teeth) have been very successful in the past and should we venture in that direction again?

Information on data collection, hospital and national typing reports for England can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/clostridium-difficile-guidance-data-and-analysis#epidemiology

What do C. difficile and HAP have in common - toilet plume??

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, after an interesting discovery when searching Youtube, Brett and Martin mull over whether toilet plume is a risk factor for hospital-acquired pneumonia and C. difficile infections. The papers we discuss are listed below.

Goforth MP, Boone SA, Clark J, Valenzuela PB, McKinney J, Ijaz MK, et al. Impacts of lid closure during toilet flushing and of toilet bowl cleaning on viral contamination of surfaces in United States restrooms. Am J Infect Control 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2023.11.020
Best EL, Sandoe JA, Wilcox MH. Potential for aerosolization of Clostridium difficile after flushing toilets: the role of toilet lids in reducing environmental contamination risk. J Hosp Infect 2012;80(1):1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2011.08.010
Lai ACK, Tan TF, Li WS, Ip DKM. Emission strength of airborne pathogens during toilet flushing. Indoor Air 2018;28(1):73-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12406

A national CPE survey of healthcare workers knowledge and some interesting sink practices

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 15:00:00 +1100

We chat with Dr Deirdre Fitzgerald-Hughes and Aoife Kearney about a national survey undertaken in Ireland. In the survey, they explored CPE knowledge and practices of healthcare workers, including infection prevention and control staff.

There were some interesting findings that may be useful in informing IPC education and training, including convincing people that they need to know more.

The paper we discuss is:

Kearney, A., Humphreys, H., & Fitzgerald-Hughes, D. (2023). Infection prevention and control policy implementation for CPE: A cross-sectional national survey of healthcare workers reveals knowledge gaps and sub-optimal practices. Journal of Hospital Infection. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2023.12.007

90% Reduction in MRSA bacteraemia. Possible but patience is a virtue!

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin Kiernan and Phil Russo talk to Professor Michael Borg of the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery in the Medical School at the University of Malta and Head of Department (Infection Control) at Mater Dei Hospital in Malta. We discuss a recent paper desctibing the stages that brought about a 90% reduction in MRSA bloodstream infections over a ten-year period.

The main paper we discuss: Borg MA, Suda D, Tartari E, Farrugia C, Xuereb D, Borg Inguanez M. Preventing healthcare-associated MRSA bacteremia: getting to the root of the problem. Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol 2023;3(1):e248. https://doi.org/10.1017/ash.2023.518

Other papers by Michael include:

Borg MA, Suda D, Scicluna E, Brincat A, Zarb P. Universal admission screening: a potential game-changer in hospitals with high prevalence of MRSA. J Hosp Infect 2021;113:77-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.03.024
Borg MA, Brincat A. Addressing the controversy of 100% hand hygiene compliance: can alcohol rub consumption data serve as a useful proxy validator? J Hosp Infect 2018;100(2):218-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2018.04.024
Borg MA, Waisfisz B, Frank U. Quantitative assessment of organizational culture within hospitals and its relevance to infection prevention and control strategies. J Hosp Infect 2015;90(1):75-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2014.12.015
Borg MA. Lowbury Lecture 2013. Cultural determinants of infection control behaviour: understanding drivers and implementing effective change. J Hosp Infect 2014;86(3):161-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2013.12.006
De Bono S, Heling G, Borg MA. Organizational culture and its implications for infection prevention and control in healthcare institutions. J Hosp Infect 2014;86(1):1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2013.10.007
Borg MA, Hulscher M, Scicluna EA, Richards J, Azanowsky JM, Xuereb D, et al. Prevention of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections in European hospitals: moving beyond policies. J Hosp Infect 2014;87(4):203-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2014.05.00

C. difficile: Disinfectants, attachment and strain variations

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Martin talks to Dr Tina Joshi, Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology in Peninsula Dental School at the University of Plymouth, UK. We discuss her longstanding interest in Clostridioides difficile and her many publications, one of which on the effectiveness of hypochlorite (or lack of it) on spores has been widely covered in the media. We chat about spore attachment to surfaces, the effect of disinfectants and the differences between strains. Some of Tina's papers are listed here.

Joshi LT, Phillips DS, Williams CF, Alyousef A, Baillie L. Contribution of spores to the ability of Clostridium difficile to adhere to surfaces. Appl Environ Microbiol 2012;78(21):7671-9. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01862-12
Joshi LT, Welsch A, Hawkins J, Baillie L. The effect of hospital biocide sodium dichloroisocyanurate on the viability and properties of Clostridium difficile spores. Lett Appl Microbiol 2017;65(3):199-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/lam.12768
Dyer C, Hutt LP, Burky R, Joshi LT. Biocide Resistance and Transmission of Clostridium difficile Spores Spiked onto Clinical Surfaces from an American Health Care Facility. Appl Environ Microbiol 2019;85(17). https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01090-19
Waterfield S, Ahmed H, Jones IA, Burky R, Joshi LT. Isolation of Clostridioides difficile PCR Ribotype 027 from single-use hospital gown ties. J Med Microbiol 2022;71(6). https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001550
Ahmed H, Joshi LT. Clostridioides difficile spores tolerate disinfection with sodium hypochlorite disinfectant and remain viable within surgical scrubs and gown fabrics. Microbiology (Reading) 2023;169(11). https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001418
Malyshev D, Jones IA, McKracken M, Oberg R, Harper GM, Joshi LT, et al. Hypervirulent R20291 Clostridioides difficile spores show disinfection resilience to sodium hypochlorite despite structural changes. BMC Microbiol 2023;23(1):59. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-023-02787-z.

The 2023 End of Year/Christmas Special

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 15:00:00 +1100

In our usual Christmas episode, Brett, Phil and Martin choose our papers and podcasts of 2023. Also this time, Martin set the three of us a challenge: to find an interesting IPC-related paper from the years of our birth (more challenging for some than others..). Martin also reveals the No 1 single in our respective countries on the day of our birth. For Martin, a near miss. For Phil, a very apt song and for Brett... well, his karaoke debut cannot be far off.. Happy holidays everyone!

Martin's 1955 paper: Lowbury, E. J. (1955). "Cross-infection of wounds with antibiotic-resistant organisms." Br Med J 1(4920): 985-990. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.4920.985

Phil's 1964 paper: Murray, D. G. (1964). "Wound Infections after Surgery for Fractured Hip. A Follow-up Study." JAMA 190: 505-508. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1964.03070190025005

Brett's 1979 paper: Ehrenkranz, N. J. and S. J. Pfaff (1979). "Growth of hospital infection control programme and the infection control nurse." J R Soc Med 72(12): 888. https://doi.org/10.1177/014107687907201204

Our top papers

Martin's favourite paper: Wolfensberger, A., L. Clack, S. von Felten, M. Faes Hesse, D. Saleschus, M. T. Meier, K. Kusejko, R. Kouyos, L. Held and H. Sax (2023). "Prevention of non-ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia in Switzerland: a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial." Lancet Infect Dis 23(7): 836-846. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00812-X

Phil's favourite paper: Peel, T. N., S. Astbury, A. C. Cheng, D. L. Paterson, K. L. Buising, T. Spelman, A. Tran-Duy, S. Adie, G. Boyce, C. McDougall, R. Molnar, J. Mulford, P. Rehfisch, M. Solomon, R. Crawford, T. Harris-Brown, J. Roney, J. Wisniewski, R. de Steiger and A. T. Group (2023). "Trial of Vancomycin and Cefazolin as Surgical Prophylaxis in Arthroplasty." N Engl J Med 389(16): 1488-1498. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2301401

Brett's favourite paper: Seidelman, J. L., C. R. Mantyh and D. J. Anderson (2023). "Surgical Site Infection Prevention: A Review." JAMA 329(3): 244-252. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.24075

If you could have anything in IPC, what would you want?

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode Phil and Brett mull over their wishlists for what they would want in a perfect IPC world. They turn out to be a pretty undemanding pair.. not. However they both see a future in which their wishes could become true. Unsurprisingly AI and automated surveillance loom large in their thoughts.

Would you be admitted to a room where a previous person was infected?

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Brett and Martin discuss a paper they were recently involved with - a systematic review and meta-analysis on prior room occupancy and the risk to the next person. This paper has been recently published in Infection, Disease and Health.

Findings provide some evidence to help inform a risk management approach when determining patient room allocation. The risk of pathogen acquisition appears to remain high, supporting the need for continued investment in this area.

Here is a link to the paper.

In our discussion, we also mentioned a paper about nurses views on the environment and risk:

Mitchell, B. G., Russo, P. L., Kiernan, M., & Curryer, C. (2021). Nurses' and midwives’ cleaning knowledge, attitudes and practices: An Australian study. Infection, disease & health, 26(1), 55-62. Link here: Nurses' and midwives’ cleaning knowledge, attitudes and practices: An Australian study

MDRO Plasmid-related outbreaks - is there anything we can do? With Jon Otter

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Martin talks to Dr Jon Otter, epidemiologist, scientst, blogger and Joint Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. We discuss a session at the recent ICPIC conference on the problems posed by plasmids in terms of outbreak detection, increasing antimicrobial resistance and environmental reservoirs. You can read more about Jon's thoughts in his excellent blog post at https://reflectionsipc.com/2023/09/14/cpe-and-plasmid-transfer-in-hospitals-what-can-we-do-a-rapid-reflection-from-icpic-2023/#more-5141

A paper we discuss from Kalisvar Marimuthu and colleagies can be found here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30637-5

You can listen to Kalis discussing it on a previous podcast in our genomics collection here:

https://infectioncontrolmatters.com/topics/methodology/

Ice machines - a chilling thought?

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Brett talks to Martin about a recent paper on the potential pitfalls of ice machines and following manufactures' instructions.

The paper we discuss is called "How clean is your ice machine?"

This paper was published in the journal of hospital infection: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195670123002700

Detection of pathogens in the neonatal ICU environment with Dr Ginny Moore

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin talks to Dr Jinny Moore from the National Health Security Agency in England about detecting pathogens in the ICU environment. They discuss a recent paper where whole-genome sequencing (WGS) on presumptive S. capitis NRCS-A isolates was collected from infants admitted to nationwide NICU and from environmental sampling in two distinct NICUs. The discussion includes details on the approach to sampling (neonates and environment).

Papers discussed:

Detection, survival, and persistence of Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A in neonatal units in England https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(23)00234-7/fulltext

Other papers of interest:

Laurent F, Butin M. Staphylococcus capitis and NRCS-A clone: the story of an unrecognized pathogen in neonatal intensive care units. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2019;25:1081-5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30928561

Butin M, Martins-Simoes P, Rasigade JP, Picaud JC, Laurent F. Worldwide Endemicity of a Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus capitis Clone Involved in Neonatal Sepsis. Emerg Infect Dis. 2017;23:538-9.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28221122
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5382751/pdf/16-0833.pdf

Butin M, Martins-Simoes P, Pichon B, Leyssene D, Bordes-Couecou S, Meugnier H, et al. Emergence and dissemination of a linezolid-resistant Staphylococcus capitis clone in Europe. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2017;72:1014-20. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27999045

Van Der Zwet WC, Debets-Ossenkopp YJ, Reinders E, Kapi M, Savelkoul PH, Van Elburg RM, et al. Nosocomial spread of a Staphylococcus capitis strain with heteroresistance to vancomycin in a neonatal intensive care unit. J Clin Microbiol. 2002;40:2520-5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12089273
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC120592/pdf/1550.pdf

Preventing device-associated infections during a COVID-19 pandemic

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:00:00 +1100

This week, Martin talks to Dr Jennifer Meddings, Associate Professor at University of Michigan Health and Internist at Ann Arbor about a recently published survey looking at what interventions are commonly used to prevent device-associated infections. We discuss the findings and focus in on prevention of urinary catheter-associated infections and new devices that may have an impact.

The paper can be found here:

Saint, S., M. T. Greene, S. L. Krein, K. E. Fowler, K. A. Linder, D. Ratz & J. Meddings (2023) What US hospitals are doing to prevent common device-associated infections during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: Results from a national survey in the United States. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol, 10.1017/ice.2023.65, 1-7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37259703

Other areas and papers that we discuss are here:

New tools that have been developed and piloted in a large surgical collaborative in Michigan, in our project called SUCCESS: Surgical Urinary Catheter Care Enhancement Safety Study, which has focused on improving urinary catheter safety even beyond CAUTI prevention, including focus on reducing unnecessary use for several common elective procedures, standardizing diagnosis and management of urinary retention, and practices to reduce traumatic injury from catheters and improve success on first catheterization attempt: https://msqc.org/success/.

Kuriyama, A., K. E. Fowler, J. Meddings, H. Irie, D. Kawakami, H. Iwasaki, M. Sakuraya, K. Katayama, Y. Tokuda & S. Saint (2019) Reducing unnecessary urethral catheter use in Japanese intensive care units: A multicenter interventional study. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol, 40, 1272-1274. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31558172

Patel, P. K., A. Gupta, V. M. Vaughn, J. D. Mann, J. M. Ameling & J. Meddings (2018) Review of Strategies to Reduce Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI) and Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) in Adult ICUs. J Hosp Med, 13, 105-116. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29154382

Meddings, J., S. Saint, S. L. Krein, E. Gaies, H. Reichert, A. Hickner, S. McNamara, J. D. Mann & L. Mody (2017) Systematic Review of Interventions to Reduce Urinary Tract Infection in Nursing Home Residents. J Hosp Med, 12, 356-368. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28459908

Identifying healthcare cleaning research priorities in resource-limited settings

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Giorgia Gon, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, L ondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine about a briefing paper that identifies research priorities for healthcare cleaning in resource-limited settings. We discuss the process of determining the priorities, the groups involved and the final areas that should be targeted with research funding, including cost-effectiveness, the use of biocides or detergents and minimum requirements.

You can find a copy of the CLEAN Briefing here

Other papers of interest:

1. Cross S, Gon G, Morrison E, Afsana K, Ali SM, Manjang T, et al. An invisible workforce: the neglected role of cleaners in patient safety on maternity units. Glob Health Action. 2019;12:1480085. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31154993

2. Gon G, Kabanywanyi AM, Blinkhoff P, Cousens S, Dancer SJ, Graham WJ, et al. The Clean pilot study: evaluation of an environmental hygiene intervention bundle in three Tanzanian hospitals. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2021;10:8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33413647

3. Storr J, Kilpatrick C, Lee K. Time for a renewed focus on the role of cleaners in achieving safe health care in low- and middle-income countries. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2021;10:59. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33762000

Sinks in ICU Patient Rooms. Lower numbers of sinks equals lower infection rates?

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin talks to Giovanni-Battista Fucini about a recent paper from Germany that examined infection rates in critical care in which it was reported that hospitals without sinks in patient rooms have lower infection rates. Newer hospitals in Germany tend not to have sinks in the patient rooms in ICU.

The paper we discuss is here:

Giovanni-Battista, F., C. Geffers, F. Schwab, M. Behnke, W. Sunder, J. Moellmann & P. Gastmeier (2023) Sinks in patient rooms in the ICU are associated with higher rates of hospital-acquired infections. A retrospective analysis of 552 ICUs. J Hosp Infect, 10.1016/j.jhin.2023.05.018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2023.05.018

Other papers of interest are:

Kotay, S. M., H. I. Parikh, K. Barry, H. S. Gweon, W. Guilford, J. Carroll & A. J. Mathers (2020) Nutrients influence the dynamics of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase producing enterobacterales in transplanted hospital sinks. Water Res, 176, 115707. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32224328
Constantinides, B., K. K. Chau, T. P. Quan, G. Rodger, M. I. Andersson, K. Jeffery, S. Lipworth, H. S. Gweon, A. Peniket, G. Pike, J. Millo, M. Byukusenge, M. Holdaway, C. Gibbons, A. J. Mathers, D. W. Crook, T. E. A. Peto, A. S. Walker & N. Stoesser (2020) Genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in hospital sink drains and patients. Microb Genom, 6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32553019
Mathers, A. J., K. Vegesana, I. German Mesner, K. E. Barry, A. Pannone, J. Baumann, D. W. Crook, N. Stoesser, S. Kotay, J. Carroll & C. D. Sifri (2018) Intensive Care Unit Wastewater Interventions to Prevent Transmission of Multispecies Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase-Producing Organisms. Clin Infect Dis, 67, 171-178. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29409044
Grabowski, M., J. M. Lobo, B. Gunnell, K. Enfield, R. Carpenter, L. Barnes & A. J. Mathers (2018) Characterizations of handwashing sink activities in a single hospital medical intensive care unit. J Hosp Infect, 100, e115-e122. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29738784
Kotay, S., W. Chai, W. Guilford, K. Barry & A. J. Mathers (2017) Spread from the Sink to the Patient: In Situ Study Using Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)-Expressing Escherichia coli To Model Bacterial Dispersion from Hand-Washing Sink-Trap Reservoirs. Appl Environ Microbiol, 83. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28235877
Garvey, M. I., N. Williams, A. Gardiner, C. Ruston, M. A. C. Wilkinson, M. Kiernan, J. T. Walker & E. Holden (2023) The sink splash zone. J Hosp Infect, 135, 154-156. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36870392

Future directions for surveillance

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 15:00:00 +1000

Martin chats to Phil in Melbourne following a recent presentation. Yes, two old farts reminiscing about the days of wearing out the boot leather collecting surveillance data talk with envy about the potential of HAI surveillance in the era of the electronic medical record, automation and artificial intelligence.

Phil refers to data in these two publications:

C. difficile and One Health with Prof Tom Riley

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 14:00:00 +1000

We discuss One Health in this episode with Professor Tom Riley, using C.difficile as the example of explaining why the concept of One Health is so important.

Tom is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Australian Society for Microbiology, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the Faculty of Science of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, and has published over 400 book chapters and refereed publications.

Saving time and increasing IPC efficiency using Robotic Process Automation

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 14:00:00 +1000

This week, Martin talks to Jincy Jerry, Assistant Director of Nursing in Infection Prevention and Control at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. Jincy is a pioneer in the use of Robotic Process Automation in clinical settings within Irish Healthcare. Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate humans actions interacting with digital systems and software. In 2021, the project received Prix Hubert Tuor Innovation Academy Award at the 6th International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC), in Geneva.

We discuss the potential and actual benefits, including the freeing up of hours of IP time as well as the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the infection prevention world.

A review paper on this topic can be found here:

Piaggio, D., M. Zarro, S. Pagliara, M. Andellini, A. Almuhini, A. Maccaro & L. Pecchia (2023) The use of smart environments and robots for infection prevention control: A systematic literature review. Am J Infect Control, 10.1016/j.ajic.2023.03.005. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36924997

A CLEEN study chat and a rude interruption!

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, we talk about the CLEEN and I-CLEEN studies. These are a RCT and quasi-experimental genomics study aiming to determine the effect of additional cleaning of shared medical equipment of the frequency of healthcare associated infections. We also make phone call mid podcast...

A shout out to all the team involved in this project, including being wonderfully coordinated by Dr Kate Browne and with great support from Georgia Matterson. Full details on the website below.

Link to study website: https://cleenstudy.com/

Link to study protocol: https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-023-07144-z

This project is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Investigator grant (Prof Brett Mitchell, (GNT2008392)).

Surgical site infection, quality improvement and patient involvement with Sinéad Horgan

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Sinèad Horgan, Director of Nursing South/South West Hospital Group, and School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork in Ireland. We discuss a journey towards surgical site sueveillance and quality improvement and her recent papers on this topic. We discuss knowledge, attitudes, gaining engagement, buy-in and the importance of patient involvement in SSI prevention.

Papers discussed include:

Horgan S, et al. Healthcare professionals' knowledge and attitudes of surgical site infection and surveillance: A narrative systematic review. Nurse Educ Pract. 2023;69:103637. HTTPS://doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2023.103637
Horgan S, et al. Impact of a quality improvement intervention on the incidence of surgical site infection in patients undergoing colorectal surgery: Pre-test-post-test design. J Clin Nurs. 2023. HTTPS://doi:10.1111/jocn.16690
Troughton R, et al. Understanding determinants of infection control practices in surgery: the role of shared ownership and team hierarchy. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2019;8:116. https://doi:10.1186/s13756-019-0565-8

Implementation of HAP Prevention - not what you do but the way that you do it

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, we discuss a paper in the Lancet Infectious Disease about preventing non-ventilator associate pneumonia including the determinants of implementation
success. Brett and Martin chat with Dr Aline Wolfensberger and Professor Hugo Sax, authors of this paper about this important work.

Link to paper: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00812-X/fulltext

Dr Aline Wolfensberger is a medical doctor, certified in Internal Medicine and in Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology. She works at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology of the University Hospital Zurich with Professor Hugo Sax. Prof Hugo Sax is a Swiss ID physician who worked for the last 20 years as a leader in infection prevention and control.

Have gloves and gowns had their day?

Wed, 31 May 2023 15:00:00 +1000

Brett Mitchell talks to Dr Sarah Browning and Professor Josh Davis about a recent paper in Infection, Disease and Health - "Have gloves and gowns had their day?" The evidence for gloves and gowns is discussed, as well as results from a recent survey into their use in Australia and New Zealand.

Sarah is an infectious disease physician and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at the Hunter New England (HNE) Health District in NSW, Australia. Josh is infectious disease physician and a clinical trialist, also based at HNE and the Hunter Medical Research Institute.

A link to the article: https://www.idhjournal.com.au/article/S2468-0451(23)00030-5/fulltext

Reference: Browning, S., Davis, J. S., & Mitchell, B. G. (2023). Have gloves and gowns had their day? An Australian and New Zealand practice and attitudes survey about contact precautions for MRSA and VRE colonisation. Infection, Disease & Health. DOI: 10.1016/j.idh.2023.03.006

Surveillance and Antimicrobial Stewardship in long-term care facilities

Wed, 17 May 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode Phil talks to A/Prof Noleen Bennett* about the state of surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship and what her research has discovered in this area. Noleen also tells about an exciting project she is leading called NISPAC, a streamlined infection and antimicrobial use surveillance system for Australian Residential Aged Care Facilities.

*Associate Professor Noleen Bennett. Infection Control Consultant, Victorian Healthcare Associated Infection Surveillance Coordinating Centre and the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship.

Further information:

Outbreaks you didn’t know that you had - the joy of whole genome sequencing

Thu, 04 May 2023 13:50:00 +1000

In this episode recorded at the 2023 SHEA Spring Meeting in Seattle, Martin talks to Associate Professor Alex Sundermann about his work on sequencing all isolates from local healthcare settings and the discoveries that this enables. Healthcare infections due to previous admissions, endoscopes, even pseudo-outbreaks are all laid bare by this approach. Some recent papers from the group are listed below:

1. Sundermann AJ, et al. Two artificial tears outbreak-associated cases of XDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa detected through whole genome sequencing-based surveillance. medRxiv. 2023.

https://doi:10.1101/2023.04.11.23288417

2. Sundermann AJ, et al. Sensitivity of National Healthcare Safety Network definitions to capture healthcare-associated transmission identified by whole-genome sequencing surveillance. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023:1-3. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2023.52

3. Branch-Elliman W, et al. The future of automated infection detection: Innovation to transform practice (Part III/III). Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2023;3(1):e26. https://doi:10.1017/ash.2022.333

4. Sundermann AJ, et al. Whole-genome sequencing surveillance and machine learning for healthcare outbreak detection and investigation: A systematic review and summary. Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2022;2(1):e91. https://doi:10.1017/ash.2021.241

5. Sundermann AJ, et al. Whole-Genome Sequencing Surveillance and Machine Learning of the Electronic Health Record for Enhanced Healthcare Outbreak Detection. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;75(3):476-482. https://doi:10.1093/cid/ciab946

6. Sundermann AJ, et al. Outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infections from a Contaminated Gastroscope Detected by Whole Genome Sequencing Surveillance. Clin Infect Dis. 2021;73(3):e638-e642. https://doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa1887

7. Kumar P, et al. Method for Economic Evaluation of Bacterial Whole Genome Sequencing Surveillance Compared to Standard of Care in Detecting Hospital Outbreaks. Clin Infect Dis. 2021;73(1):e9-e18. https://doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa512

8. Sundermann AJ, et al. Automated data mining of the electronic health record for investigation of healthcare-associated outbreaks. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2019:1-6. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2018.343

Staff opinions of automated hand hygiene monitoring

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:30:00 +1000

In this second discussion of an abstract presented at the SHEA Spring meeting 2023 in Seattle, Martin talks to MPH candidate Olivia Hess about her work on staff opinions of automated hand hygiene monitoring. Olivia works as a member of Dr Gonzalo Bearman's group at VCU Health (Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond, Virginia. We discuss staff attitudes to the technology and it's utility, which are almost universally negative.

Some recent papers on automated hand hygiene monitoring:

M. A. Tremblay, et al. 2022 Investigation of Individual Nurses' Relative Hand Hygiene Performance Using an Anonymous Automated Electronic Hand Hygiene Monitoring System and a Nursing Assignment Schedule Am J Infect Control https://10.1016/j.ajic.2022.05.026
V. Mouajou, et al. 2022 Hand hygiene compliance in the prevention of hospital-acquired infections: a systematic review J Hosp Infect 119 33-48 https://10.1016/j.jhin.2021.09.016
K. J. McKay, et al. 2022 Healthcare workers' experiences of video-based monitoring of hand hygiene behaviours: a qualitative study Am J Infect Control https://10.1016/j.ajic.2022.03.010
D. J. Durant, et al. 2020 Adoption of electronic hand hygiene monitoring systems in New York state hospitals and the associated impact on hospital-acquired C. difficile infection rates Am J Infect Control 48 7 733-739 https://10.1016/j.ajic.2020.04.005

And thanks to Marco Bo Hansen for reminding us of this recent paper

A. R. Knudsen, et al. 2023 Individual hand hygiene improvements and effects on healthcare-associated infections: A long-term follow-up study using an electronic hand hygiene monitoring system J Hosp Infect In Press https://10.1016/j.jhin.2023.02.017

Human factors and cleaning in the perioperative setting

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode recorded at the 2023 SHEA Spring Meeting in Seattle, Martin talks to abstract presenter Dr Lamia Alam about the work of a Johns' Hopkins group on a systematic review of human factors relating to cleaning in the Operating Room. We discuss the abstract presented at the meeting and also previous work in human factors and environmental service workers from this group that are particular favourites of Martin's (detailed below).

Relevant papers:

1. A. Xie, et al. 2018 Improving Daily Patient Room Cleaning: An Observational Study Using a Human Factors and Systems Engineering Approach IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors 6 3-4 178-191 https://10.1080/24725838.2018.1487348

2. C. Rock, et al. 2016 Using a Human Factors Engineering Approach to Improve Patient Room Cleaning and Disinfection Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 37 12 1502-1506 https://10.1017/ice.2016.219

The 100th

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:30:00 +1000

This is the 100th episode of Infection Control Matters and includes a special announcement. A big thanks to our 110+ guests so far. In this podcast, Martin, Brett and Phil talk about what we've not covered, some stats and what is to come next.

Check out out new website: https://infectioncontrolmatters.com/

Right specimen, right time - The importance of diagnostic stewardship

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Valeria Fabre, Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Associate Medical Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and an Associate Hospital Epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. We discuss the recent SHEA position paper on practical aspects of diagnostic stewardship and the use of the diagnostic pathway (ie, ordering, collecting, processing, reporting, and interpreting results of a diagnostic test).

Paper discussed:

Fabre V, et al. Principles of diagnostic stewardship: A practical guide from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Diagnostic Stewardship Task Force. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023;44(2):178-185. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2023.5

Other recent papers on this subject:

Warren BG, et al. Evaluation of hospital blood culture utilization rates to identify opportunities for diagnostic stewardship. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023;44(2):200-205. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2022.191
Shallal AB, et al. Role of diagnostic stewardship in reducing healthcare-facility-onset Clostridioides difficile infections. Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2023;3(1):e53. https://doi:10.1017/ash.2022.305
Morgan DJ, et al. Diagnostic Stewardship to Prevent Diagnostic Error. JAMA. 2023. https://doi:10.1001/jama.2023.1678
Chiotos K, et al. Mixed-methods process evaluation of a respiratory-culture diagnostic stewardship intervention. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023;44(2):191-199. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2022.299
Advani SD, et al. Optimizing reflex urine cultures: Using a population-specific approach to diagnostic stewardship. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023;44(2):206-209. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2022.315

C. difficile - a constant challenge to stay still

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 05:13:00 +1100

In this episode Brett and Martin talk to Mairéad Skally and Prof Fidelma Fitzpatrick about their efforts to minimise Clostridioides difficile infections in the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Mairéad is a Surveillance Scientist and Fidelma is a Consultant Microbiologist and also Head of Department of Clinical Microbiology at the Royal College of Surgeons (Ireland). We discuss 10 years of surveillance in the Beaumont and analysis of a rich pool of data that has helped them achieve a status quo.

The paper we discuss is here:

Skally M, Bennett K, Burns K, Brennan R, Finn C, O’Connell K, et al. A decade of Clostridioides difficile infection: A constant challenge to maintain the status quo. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2023 in press https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2023.02.008

Detection, removal and prevention of environmental biofilms

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Martin talks to Professor Jean-Yves Maillard from the Cardiff School of Pharmacy in Wales. We discuss detention, removal and prevention of biofilms in wet and dry environments. A range of papers on this topic from his group are listed below.

D. I. Centeleghe, et al. 2023 Klebsiella pneumoniae survives on surfaces as a dry biofilm Am J Infect Control https://doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2023.02.009
T. J. Tewes, et al. 2022 Raman Microscopic Analysis of Dry-Surface Biofilms on Clinically Relevant Materials Microorganisms 10 7 https://doi:10.3390/microorganisms10071369
K. Ledwoch, et al. 2022 Dry surface biofilms: what you need to know Br J Hosp Med (Lond) 83 8 1-3 https://doi:10.12968/hmed.2022.0274
K. Ledwoch, et al. 2021 Is a reduction in viability enough to determine biofilm susceptibility to a biocide? Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology 42 12 1486-1492 https://doi:10.1017/ice.2021.42
K. Ledwoch, et al. 2020 It's a trap! The development of a versatile drain biofilm model and its susceptibility to disinfection J Hosp Infect 106 4 757-764 https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2020.08.010

The Sink Splash Zone - danger lies within?

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 20:23:54 +1100

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin talk to Dr Mark Garvey, Consultant Clinical Scientist at University Hospitals Birmingham in the UK. We discuss a new paper from the UHB team which looks at the practical aspects of contamination within the splash radius of a clinical hand hygiene sink in a critical care area. The range of high risk equipment within the zone is quite interesting! Papers mentioned are as below.

1. Garvey MI, Williams N, Gardiner A, Ruston C, Wilkinson M, Kiernan M, et al. The sink splash zone. J Hosp Infect. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2023.01.020 PubMed PMID: 36870392.

2. Garvey MI, Wilkinson MAC, Holden KL, Martin T, Parkes J, Holden E. Tap out: reducing waterborne Pseudomonas aeruginosa transmission in an intensive care unit. J Hosp Infect. 2019;102(1):75-81. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2018.07.039

3. Garvey MI, Bradley CW, Holden E. Waterborne Pseudomonas aeruginosa transmission in a hematology unit? Am J Infect Control. 2018;46(4):383-6. Epub 20171128. https://doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2017.10.013

4. Garvey MI, Bradley CW, Wilkinson MAC, Bradley C, Holden E. Engineering waterborne Pseudomonas aeruginosa out of a critical care unit. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2017;220(6):1014-9. https://doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.05.011

Oral Hygiene - attitudes and practice. Implications for pneumonia prevention.

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 15:00:00 +1100

We talk about the knowledge attitudes and practice of nurses regarding oral hygiene of dependent inpatients in this podcast with Dr Isabel Oliveira. Understanding these is an important element of improving oral care and potentially reducing hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) more broadly. Isbael is a rehabilitation nurse with a particular focus and interest in dysphagia and oral care, including the prevention of HAP. She works at the Centre for Health Studies and Research of the University of Coimbra (CEISUC) in Portugal.

The paper referred to in this podcast is "Knowledge, attitudes and practices of nurses regarding oral hygiene of dependent inpatients".

Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35680116/

Intermittent or indwelling catheter in reducing CAUTI?

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 12:34:14 +1100

In this episode, Brett talks to Associate Professor Matthew Davis about his clinical experience and recent systematic review, exploring the topic of whether indwelling vs intermittent catheterisation increases the risk of UTI. Matt is an Associate Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at McGovern Medical School in Houston and has a strong clinician background in caring for people with Spinal Cord Injury.

Here are the papers we refer to in the podcast:

DAVIS, M., JETHANI, L., ROBBINS, E. & KANER, M. 2023. Is It Really the Foley? A Systematic Review of Bladder Management and Infection Risk. Top Spinal Cord Inj Rehabil, 29, 94-107.

https://meridian.allenpress.com/tscir/article-abstract/29/1/94/490861/Is-It-Really-the-Foley-A-Systematic-Review-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext

DAVIS, M. 2019. When guidelines conflict: patient safety, quality of life, and CAUTI reduction in patients with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord Ser Cases, 5, 56.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31632714/

Surgical site infection surveillance by patient-generated images

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 12:34:00 +1100

In this first episode of 2023, Martin talks to Melissa Rochon and Prof Judith Tanner about their recent paper in the Journal of Hospital Infection that reports on the use of patient-generated images in SSI surveillance.

Papers discussed:

1. Rochon M, et al. Image-based digital post-discharge surveillance in England: measuring patient enrolment, engagement, clinician response times, surgical site infection, and carbon footprint. J Hosp Infect. 2023;133:15-22. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2023.01.001

2. Tyrer J. Digital photo at discharge: a way of monitoring surgical wounds. Nursing Times. 2022;119(9). https://www.nursingtimes.net/clinical-archive/tissue-viability/digital-photo-at-discharge-a-way-of-monitoring-surgical-wounds-08-08-2022/

The 2022 Christmas Special

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 11:36:53 +1100

In the final podcast of the year, we reflect on some lighthearted moments from 2022 and share our thoughts on a few favourite papers, reflections and podcasts. Being the Christmas special, it isn't too serious.. See you in 2023!

Brett's highlighted papers:

1. Peters A, et al. Impact of environmental hygiene interventions on healthcare-associated infections and patient colonization: a systematic review. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2022;11(1):38. https://doi:10.1186/s13756-022-01075-1

2. Dancer SJ, et al. One size does NOT fit all: why infection prevention is difficult to randomise or control. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2022. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2022.02.008

3. Mac Giolla Eain M, et al. Aerosol release, distribution, and prevention during aerosol therapy: a simulated model for infection control. Drug Deliv. 2022;29(1):10-17. https://doi:10.1080/10717544.2021.2015482

Phil's papers:

1. Grae N, et al. Prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in public hospitals in New Zealand, 2021. J Hosp Infect. 2022;131:164-172. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2022.10.002

2. Bolten A, et al. The carbon footprint of the operating room related to infection prevention measures: a scoping review. J Hosp Infect. 2022. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2022.07.011

Martin's papers:

1. Kato H, et al. Expansion of droplets during speaking and singing in Japanese. PLoS One. 2022;17(8):e0272122. https://doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0272122

2. Juskevicius LF, et al. Lessons learned from a failed implementation: Effective communication with patients in transmission-based precautions. Am J Infect Control. 2022. https://doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2022.09.029

3. Cawcutt KA, et al. #SoMe the Money! Value, Strategy, and Implementation of Social Media Engagement for Infectious Diseases Trainees, Clinicians, and Divisions. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;74(Suppl_3):S229-S236. https://doi:10.1093/cid/ciac063

Link to the whole Clinical Infectious Diseases social media supplement: https://academic.oup.com/cid/issue/74/Supplement_3

Link to the Norovirus song: https://youtu.be/ci7migUwURc

Hotel Quarantina (Full version) https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/jh65s2/hotel_quarantina.mp3

Developing an optimal infection prevention service with Dr Emma Burnett

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin talk to Dr Emma Burnett, Head of Campus, Fatima College of Health Sciences, Ajman, UAE. We discuss a recent collaborative that has resulted in two papers that examine the development of a conceptual framework that underpins the formation of an optimal infection prevention service. The papers that we discuss are listed below.

1. Robinson J, et al. Designing an optimal infection prevention service: Part 2. Journal of Infection Prevention. 2022. https://doi:10.1177/17571774221127573
2. Burnett E, et al. Designing an optimal infection prevention service: Part 1. Journal of Infection Prevention. 2022. https://doi:10.1177/17571774221127695

3. Curran ET, et al. A comparison of the nationally important infection prevention and control documents in NHS England and NHS Scotland. J Infect Prev. 2021;22(2):75-82. https://doi:10.1177/1757177420971849

Patients’ prespectives of Healthcare Infections with Prof Maria Northcote

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode Martin talks to Brett and Professor Maria Northcote about a recent paper on the expeciences of healthcare-associated infection on the lives of patients. The importance of communication is one of the avenues that we go down.

1. Mitchell BG, et al. Patients' perspectives of healthcare-associated infection: 'you don't know what impacts it will have on your life'. J Hosp Infect. 2022;126:93-102. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2022.04.014 https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(22)00128-1/fulltext

Mulling over priorities, RCTs at the ACIPC Conference

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Brett, Phil and Martin have a catch-up at the ACIPC conference in Sydney following Brett's session in which the audience were invited to select their priorities for action over the next year. Would the HCAIS that present the biggest burden (HAP and CAUTI) figure highly?

Special episode for World Antimicrobial Awareness Week - the 2022 ESPAUR Report is published

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 21:00:00 +1100

In this special episode for World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, Martin talks to UKHSA subject experts about the ESPAUR Report (English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance) released earlier today. You can find out more on the report at the ESPAUR webinar on 23rd November and can register here to attend: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/espaur-report-2021-to-2022-webinar-tickets-439575370767

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is responsible for protecting every member of every community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and other health threats. UKHSA provides intellectual, scientific and operational leadership at national and local level, as well as on the global stage, to make the nation's health secure.

UKHSA leads the English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance. ESPAUR publish a report annually which includes national data on antimicrobial prescribing and resistance, antimicrobial stewardship implementation, and awareness activities. It is published here during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-surveillance-programme-antimicrobial-utilisation-and-resistance-espaur-report

The national WAAW toolkit which includes a range of resources colleagues can use is available here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/european-antibiotic-awareness-day-resources-toolkit-for-healthcare-professionals-in-england

IPC Challenges in aged care and priorities in acute care discussion recorded live at the ACIPC Conference

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:57:34 +1100

In this episode, recorded live on stage in front of an audience at the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) Conference being held in Sydney. Brett, Phil and Martin talk to Sally HAvers and Belinda Henderson about the challenges facing IPC workers in aged care in Australia and future priorities for IPC going forward in acute care.

From Films to Biofilms with Annette Jeanes and Jean-Yves Maillard from the IPS Conference

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In another discussion recorded at the Infection Prevention Society Conference in Bournemouth (UK), Martin and Brett chatted to Dr Annette Jeanes and Prof Jean-Yves Maillard. Annette formerly was the Director of IPC at University College London Hospital NHS Trust, and now works independently. We discuss her time working in the film industry during COVID, and how the varied skillset of an IP practitioner is transferable into what you might think of a completely alien setting. Following that discussion, we discuss the topic of environmental dry surface biofilms with Prof Jean-Yves Maillard from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University in Wales. Jean-Yves is an experienced researcher in this field and presented the Tina Bradley Memorial lecture at the conference on this topic.

It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it with Jon Otter (from the IPS Conference)

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 15:42:39 +1100

In this episode recorded at the Infection Prevention Society Conference in Bournemouth (UK), Martin talks to Dr Jon Otter (from Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London), where he is the joint Director of Infection Prevention and Control.

We discuss a paper that he gave at the conference on the topic of language and getting the message over. A copy of his excellent presentation complete with the references to the papers that we discuss can be found downloaded from here - https://jonotter.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/221013-2-ips-communication.pptx

Special from the IPS Conference - reducing C. difficile by better mouthcare and a general chat

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 17:00:00 +1100

In this first episode recorded at the Infection Prevention Society Conference (Bournemouth, UK) we talk to Dr Holly Slyne about how the Mouth Care Matters programme resulted in a reduction in C. difficile infections by way of reducing healthcare-associated pneumonias and antibiotic use. Holly has kindly shared some resources, please see links below.

Following that, Brett, Phil and Martin have a chat about the importance of face-to-face meetings and our conference highlights so far.

Health Education England Mouth Care Matters website: http://mouthcarematters.hee.nhs.uk/

Mouthcare matters poster courtesy of Dr Holly Slyne HERE

Mouthcare care plan courtesy of Dr Holly Slyne HERE

Transmission paradigms - the view from Engineers and Physicists with Profs Cath Noakes and Lidia Morawska

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +1100

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.

New contact, droplet, airborne transmission paradigms for IPC sum-up

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 08:00:00 +1100

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.

Opinions from around the world on contact, droplet, airborne paradigms for IPC - Part 4 (Hilary Humphries, David Enoch, Jennie Wilson, Jon Otter, Pierre Parneix)

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 01:16:30 +1100

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)
David Enoch (UK)
Jennie Wilson (UK)
Michael Borg (Malta)
Jon Otter (UK
Pierre Parneix (France)

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

Opinions from around the world on contact, droplet, airborne paradigms for IPC - Part 3 (Maria Juraja, Egil Lingaas, Ramon Shaban, Elaine Cloutman-Green, Christine Peters)

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:12:15 +1100

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)
Egil Lingaas (Norway)
Ramon Shaban (Australia)
Elaine Cloutman-Green (England)
Christine Peters (Scotland)

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

New paradigms for IPC - Introduction (Contact, droplet, airborne) plus guests Kirsty Buising and Kathy Dempsey

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:11:38 +1100

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)
Kathy Dempsey (Sydney, Australia)

Opinions from around the world on contact, droplet, airborne paradigms for IPC - Part 2 (Rhonda Stewart, Kalisvar Marimuthu, Gonzalo Bearman, Belinda Henderson, Jan Kluytmans, Caroline Marshall)

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 14:42:46 +1000

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)
Kalisvar Marimuthu (Singapore)
Gonzalo Bearman (USA)
Belinda Henderson (Australia)
Jan Kluytmans (Netherlands)
Caroline Marshall (Australia)

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

The impact of TB on acute IPC Team workload

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +1000

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

Public reporting of infection - perspectives of hospital leaders and clinicians

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +1000

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

Environmental sampling - do we know what we are doing?

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +1000

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

Standardising IPC Programs with Bob Garcia

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +1000

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

YouTube, Monkeypox and infection prevention and control

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this weeks podcast, Brett and Phil discuss an article titled "YouTube and 2022 Monkeypox outbreak: opportunities for awareness and infection control". We discuss the opportunities and challenges of YouTube and social media with regards to infection prevention and control communication and information.

Link to the article:

Ortiz-Martinez Y, et al. YouTube and 2022 Monkeypox outbreak: opportunities for awareness and infection control. J Hosp Infect. 2022. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2022.07.00

Integrated, multi-specialty IPC teams - the future? With Dr David Weber

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this week's episode, Martin talks to Dr David Weber of Uniiversity Hospitals South Carolina about his hospital's integrated IPC team which includes quality improvement and behaviour specialists as well as the more traditional membership. This discussion was prompted by a recent letter to Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

1. Weber DJ, et al. A new paradigm for infection prevention programs: An integrated approach. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2022:1-4. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2022.94

2. Buchanan MO, et al. The compliance coach: A bedside observer, auditor, and educator as part of an infection prevention department's team approach for improving central line care and reducing central line-associated bloodstream infection risk. Am J Infect Control. 2019;47(1):109-111. https://doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2018.06.005

IPC Team Experiences during COVID

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +1000

Martin catches up with Phil Russo whilst at the APSIC meeting in Singapore and we discuss a recent paper that has looked at the experiences of IPC Teams in Australia during the pandemic. What went well and what wasn't quite so good. Links to the papers discussed are here.

1. Baswa A, et al. Experience and perspectives of infection prevention staff of the COVID-19 response in Australian hospitals. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2022;11(1):77. https://doi:10.1186/s13756-022-01116-9

2. McGuinness SL, et al. Mental Health Outcomes in Australian Healthcare and Aged-Care Workers during the Second Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(9). https://doi:10.3390/ijerph19094951

3. McGuinness SL, et al. Mental Health Outcomes in Australian Healthcare and Aged-Care Workers during the Second Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(9). https://doi:10.3390/ijerph19094951

4. Searby A, et al. The impact of COVID-19 on nurse alcohol consumption: A qualitative exploration. J Clin Nurs. 2022. https://doi:10.1111/jocn.16467

4. COVICS Website https://www.monash.edu/medicine/covic-ha/home

VAP in the ’too difficult’ box - could VAE be the answer? with Dr Michael Klompas

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this week's episode, Martin talks to Dr Michael Klompas, Infectious Disease physician, Hospital Epidemiologist, and Professor of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA. We discuss the complexities of undertaking surveillance of Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and the USA approach to looking at the wider issue of Ventilator-associated Events (VAE) that removes subjectivity from the surveillance of these important complications. We also discuss the recent SHEA/IDSA/APIC/AMA prevention strategies paper that is the latest state of the art guidance on VAP/VAE prevention.

Useful reading here:

1. Klompas M, et al. Strategies to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia, ventilator-associated events, and nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia in acute-care hospitals: 2022 Update. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2022;43(6):687-713. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2022.88

2. Weinberger JF, et al. Changes in the epidemiology of ventilator-associated events over the course of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2021:1-3. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.459

3. Klompas M. Ventilator-Associated Events: What They Are and What They Are Not. Respir Care. 2019;64(8):953-961. https://doi.org/10.4187/respcare.07059

4. Klompas M. Ventilator-associated conditions versus ventilator-associated pneumonia: different by design. Curr Infect Dis Rep. 2014;16(10):430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-014-0430-0

5. Klompas M, et al. Risk of misleading ventilator-associated pneumonia rates with use of standard clinical and microbiological criteria. Clin Infect Dis. 2008;46(9):1443-1446. https://doi.org/10.1086/587103

Hidden reservoirs contribute to plasmid-mediated transmission with Dr Kalisvar Marimuthu

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin talk to Adjunct Assistant Prof Dr Kalisvar Marimuthu, who is currently a senior consultant in Infectious Diseases at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore. We discuss his recent paper that notes that over 50% of transmissions occurring in healthcare result from plasmid and not colonal spread. Traditional IPC interventions seem to work for clonal transmission, however new thinking is required to tackle the problems of plasmids.

Papers we discuss are:

1. Marimuthu K, Venkatachalam I, Koh V et al. Whole genome sequencing reveals hidden transmission of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales. Nat Commun 2022; 13: 3052. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9160272/
2. Ng DHL, Marimuthu K, Lee JJ et al. Environmental colonization and onward clonal transmission of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in a medical intensive care unit: the case for environmental hygiene. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2018; 7: 51. https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-018-0343-z

Glove or no glove - with Dr Jon Otter

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin caught up with Jon Otter to discuss the 'Glove or no glove' campaign currently being implemented at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals in London UK. Jon has recently blogged about this (https://reflectionsipc.com/2022/05/04/we-need-to-talk-about-gloves/), a blog always worth following if you like to read Jon's thoughts and musings on current issues in IPC.

Turning prevalence into incidence to determine the burden of healthcare associated infections

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Brett Mitchell about his recent paper that estimates the burden of HCAI from a prevalence study.

Papers discussed are:

Lydeamore MJ, Mitchell BG, Bucknall T, Cheng AC, Russo PL, Stewardson AJ Burden of five healthcare associated infections in Australia. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2022; 11: 69. https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-022-01109-8

Russo PL, Stewardson AJ, Cheng AC, Bucknall T, Mitchell BG The prevalence of healthcare associated infections among adult inpatients at nineteen large Australian acute-care public hospitals: a point prevalence survey. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2019; 8: 114. https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-019-0570-y

Are we experts? Phil, Brett and Martin mull this over

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 05:36:00 +1000

This week's podcast is a live chat recorded in Melbourne in June and features Phil Russo, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan, who discuss whether we think that we are IPC experts (or not). Have a listen and make your own mind up!

Arrival of Monkeypox and will transmission paradigms change post-COVID? With Dr Deb Friedman

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +1000

A/Professor Deb Friedman is the Deputy Chief Health Officer at the Department of Health Victoria, Australia. Prior to that she was the Medical Director of infection prevention control and response in Victoria, a key role in Victorias covid response. With an extensive history in infection prevention and control as an infectious diseases physician Deb has played a vital role in Victoria's COVID response. In this episode, Phil Russo chats to her about her role as DCHO and her recent involvement with the arrival of monkey pox. With her great insight Deb also shares her views about the airborne v droplet paradigm.

The New Zealand National Point Prevalance Study with Dr Sally Roberts

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 16:39:19 +1000

In this podcast Phil Russo chats with Dr Sally Roberts, Clinical Head of Microbiology at the Auckland District Health Board, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is also the National Clinical Lead for the Health Quality & Safety Commission New Zealand Infection Prevention and Control programme and recently led the recent first national point prevalent survey of healthcare associated infections across Aotearoa New Zealand. Sally tells us what led to the first ever PPS in Aotearoa New Zealand, the many challenges they endured, the major findings and how the data will be used nationally. A publication is in the making, in the meantime you can read the full Aotearoa New Zealand Health Safety and Quality report here.

I-DECIDED tool

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, Brett talks to Dr Gillian Ray-Barruel from the University of Queensland and Griffith University. We talk about Gillian's development of the I-DECIDED tool - decision tool for assessment and management of all invasive devices in the hospital setting.

In the podcast, Gillian mentioned she was happy to be contacted.

The link to the paper can be found here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35439078/

Using whole genome sequencing as part of an infection control service

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, Martin and Brett talk to Trish Hurst, Belinda Henderson and Dr Patrick Harris about how WGS is being used in two major Australian hospitals. We here about how it started, how is works now and the potential of WGS in real-time for infection control services.

The discussion is centred around this pre-print publication: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.02.22273921v1 "Clinical implementation of routine whole-genome sequencing for hospital infection control of multi-drug resistant pathogens"

What affects environmental contamination with C. difficile? New papers with Dr David Weber

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 14:00:00 +1000

In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr David Weber, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics and Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina about recent papers on environmental contamination with Clostridioides difficile. We discuss antibiotics and the effect of asymptomatic carriage on risk of transmission. The papers we discuss are:

Warren BG, et al. The Impact of Infection Versus Colonization on Clostridioides difficile Environmental Contamination in Hospitalized Patients With Diarrhea. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022;9(4):ofac069. https://doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac069
Turner NA, et al. Impact of Oral Metronidazole, Vancomycin, and Fidaxomicin on Host Shedding and Environmental Contamination With Clostridioides difficile. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;74(4):648-656. https://doi:10.1093/cid/ciab473

Respiratory protection preparedness in critical care healthcare workers & facial hair

Wed, 25 May 2022 14:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, Brett Mitchell talks to Professor Daryl Williams about respirators and facial hair. So much to learn, so much more to know. The talk was based on a paper published in Infection Disease and Health.

The article link: https://www.idhjournal.com.au/article/S2468-0451(22)00003-7/fulltext

Prof Daryl Williams is the Director of the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management. His clinical and research interests include neuro-anaesthesia, resuscitation, trauma medicine and advanced airway management.

Reflecting on a contact precautions talk at ECCMID with Dr Gonzalo Bearman

Wed, 18 May 2022 14:00:00 +1000

After his excellent session atthe ECCMID meeting, Martin talks to Dr Gonzalo Bearman (Chief of Infectious Diseases at VCU Health, Editor in Chief of Antimicrobial Stewardship Healthcare Epidemiology (ASHE), footballer and drummer) about the removal of contact precautions for endemic organisms like MRSA and VRE and how evidence can change practice. Challenges of applying evidence from one setting to another are also discussed. Some of Gonzalo's papers on this subject are here:

Bearman GM, et al. A controlled trial of universal gloving versus contact precautions for preventing the transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms. Am J Infect Control. 2007;35(10):650-655. https://10.1016/j.ajic.2007.02.011
McLemore A, et al. Effect of contact precautions on wait time from emergency room disposition to inpatient admission. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2011;32(3):298-299. https://doi:10.1086/658913
Banach DB, et al. Duration of Contact Precautions for Acute-Care Settings. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2018:1-18. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2017.245
Bearman G, et al. Impact of Discontinuing Contact Precautions for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2018;39(6):676-682. https://doi:10.1017/ice.2018.57
Godbout EJ, et al. Impact of discontinuation of contact precautions on central-line associated bloodstream infections in an academic children's hospital. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2019:1-3.
Haessler S, et al. Stopping the routine use of contact precautions for management of MRSA and VRE at three academic medical centers: An interrupted time series analysis. Am J Infect Control. 2020;48(12):1466-1473. https://doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2020.06.219
Morgan DJ, et al. Contact Precautions for Endemic MRSA and VRE: Time to Retire Legal Mandates. JAMA. 2017;318(4):329-330. https://doi:10.1001/jama.2017.7419
Bearman G, et al. Control of drug-resistant pathogens in endemic settings: contact precautions, controversies, and a proposal for a less restrictive alternative. Curr Infect Dis Rep. 2012;14(6):620-626. https://doi:10.1007/s11908-012-0299-8

Environmental cleaning & the role of patient service assistants

Wed, 11 May 2022 14:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, Brett Mitchell talks to A/Professor Stéphane Bouchoucha about a recent article exploring the role of patient service assistants in environmental cleaning. The article is published in Infection Disease and Health. https://www.idhjournal.com.au/article/S2468-0451(22)00006-2/fulltext

Dr Stéphane Bouchoucha is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of School (International) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University. He is also a researcher based in Deakin’s Institute for Health Transformation and the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control President-Elect.

50 Shades of Grey - Risk assessment and communicating decisions with Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green

Wed, 04 May 2022 14:00:00 +1000

Measuring cleaning effectivness and improvement with Dr Phil Carling from SHEA Spring 2022

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 19:19:57 +1000

In this episode recorded at the 2022 SHEA spring meeting, Martin Kiernan discussed measuring the effectiveness of cleaning with Dr Phil Carling from Boston. We also discuss how data used from environmental monitoring can be used to promote improvements in practice.

Some of Phil's key papers in this area are here:

Carling PC, et al. Improved cleaning of patient rooms using a new targeting method. Clin Infect Dis. 2006;42(3):385-388. https://doi.org/10.1086/499361
Carling PC, et al. Improving environmental hygiene in 27 intensive care units to decrease multidrug-resistant bacterial transmission. Crit Care Med. 2010;38(4):1054-1059. https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0b013e3181cdf705
Carling PC, et al. Intensive care unit environmental cleaning: an evaluation in sixteen hospitals using a novel assessment tool. J Hosp Infect. 2008;68(1):39-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2007.09.015
Carling PC, et al. Identifying opportunities to enhance environmental cleaning in 23 acute care hospitals. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2008;29(1):1-7. https://doi.org/10.1086/524329

CO2 monitoring to find hospital areas with poor ventilation - Poster at ECCMID 2022 with Sharon Bamber

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 18:36:36 +1000

In this episode recorded at the ECCMID 2022 meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, Martin Kiernan talks to poster abstract presenter Clinical Scientist Sharon Bamber about her organisation's use of small, portable and inexpensive CO2 monitors (Airvisual Pro iQAir - other monotors are available..) that measure air quality. Through the use of these, the organisation (Wirral University Hospital Trust in the UK) was able to determine which areas of the organisation were poorly ventilated based on aur quality, allowing for mitigation measures (portable HEPA) to be implemented.

If you would like to read the poster whilst listening, Sharon has kindly sent a copy, available here

NERVTAG is the New and Emerging Respiratory Viruses Threats Advisory Group https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/new-and-emerging-respiratory-virus-threats-advisory-group

Human and financial cost of healthcare-associated pneumonia with Dr Dian Baker at the 2022 SHEA Spring Meeting

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode recorded at the 2022 SHEA Sprong meeting, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Dian Baker, Emeritus Professor at California State University, Sacramento, USA. Dian has been a passionate advocate for action against healthcare-onset non-ventilator associated pneumonia (nVHAP) for over 12 years and as ever, it was a personal experience that motivated her to look into this important topic. Apart from the human cost, nVHAP is responsible for use of antibiotics and means huge costs for healthcare systems globally. Some of Dian's key papers are listed here:

1. Baker DL, et al. Prevention practices for nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia: A survey of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Research Network (SRN). Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2021:1-2. http:

2. Quinn B, et al. Non-ventilator health care-associated pneumonia (NV-HAP): Best practices for prevention of NV-HAP. Am J Infect Control. 2020;48(5S):A23-A27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2020.03.006

3. Giuliano KK, et al. The epidemiology of nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia in the United States. Am J Infect Control. 2018;46(3):322-327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.09.005

4. Baker D, et al. Hospital Acquired Pneumonia Prevention Initiative-2: Incidence of nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia in the United States. Am J Infect Control. 2018;46(1):2-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.08.036

5. Quinn B, et al. Basic nursing care to prevent nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2014;46(1):11-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12050

N95 Mask use for respiratory protection - a discussion with Dr Michael Klompas at the SHEA Spring Meeting

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 07:27:53 +1000

Martin Kiernan managaed to grab a few minutes with Dr Michael Klompas, ID Physicial at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, at the SHEA Spring meeting. We discuss the use of N95 masks and whether in a time of Omicron increased prevalence they should be used in all healthcare settins and not just for suspected or confirmed cases of COVID. Some of Dr Klompas' recent papers are here:

1. Klompas M, et al. Universal Use of N95 Respirators in Healthcare Settings When Community Coronavirus Disease 2019 Rates Are High. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;74(3):529-531. doi:10.1093/cid/ciab539

2. Klompas M, et al. Preventing SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Health Care Settings in the Context of the Omicron Variant. JAMA. 2022;327(7):619-620. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2788503

3. Klompas M, et al. COVID-19's Challenges to Infection Control Dogma Regarding Respiratory Virus Transmission. Clin Infect Dis. 2022. https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cid/ciac204/6546689

4. Baker MA, et al. Rapid control of hospital-based SARS-CoV-2 Omicron clusters through daily testing and universal use of N95 respirators. Clin Infect Dis. 2022. https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciac113/6523822

5. Klompas M, et al. Current Insights Into Respiratory Virus Transmission and Potential Implications for Infection Control Programs : A Narrative Review. Ann Intern Med. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34748374/

Implementation of patient warming to prevent SSI - How hard can it be? With Prof. Judith Tanner

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 05:54:00 +1000

In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Judith Tanner, Professor of Adult Nursing at the University of Nottingham, UK about a paper in which a mixed methods approach to examining potential and actual barriers to implementation of patient warming were examined. Papers discussed during the session include:

Tanner J, et al. Using a comprehensive audit to identify local context prior to care bundle design and implementation for inadvertent perioperative hypothermia in colorectal surgery. BMJ Open Qual. 2021;10(1). doi:10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001132 https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/1/e001132
Melling AC, et al. Effects of preoperative warming on the incidence of wound infection after clean surgery: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2001;358(9285):876-880. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)06071-8
Tanner J, et al. Effectiveness of a care bundle to reduce surgical site infections in patients having open colorectal surgery. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2016;98(4):270-274. doi:10.1308/rcsann.2016.0072
Tanner J, et al. Do surgical care bundles reduce the risk of surgical site infections in patients undergoing colorectal surgery? A systematic review and cohort meta-analysis of 8,515 patients. Surgery. 2015;158(1):66-77. doi:10.1016/j.surg.2015.03.009

Surgical Site Infection (SSI) prevention with Charles Edmiston

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Phil Russo flies solo and discusses strategies for prevention of SSI with Professor Charles Edmiston, Emeritus Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Chuck has a longstanding interest in SSI prevention and a few of his papers are listed below. As ever, 'compliance' with interventions is a key issue.

Parvizi, J., S. Barnes, N. Shohat & C. E. Edmiston, Jr. (2017) Environment of care: Is it time to reassess microbial contamination of the operating room air as a risk factor for surgical site infection in total joint arthroplasty? Am J Infect Control, 45, 1267-1272. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28818359
Leaper, D. J., C. E. Edmiston, Jr. & C. E. Holy (2017) Meta-analysis of the potential economic impact following introduction of absorbable antimicrobial sutures. Br J Surg, 104, e134-e144. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28093728
Edmiston, C. E., Jr. & D. Leaper (2017) Should preoperative showering or cleansing with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) be part of the surgical care bundle to prevent surgical site infection? J Infect Prev, 18, 311-314. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29344102
Edmiston, C. E., Jr., N. A. Ledeboer, B. W. Buchan, M. Spencer, G. R. Seabrook & D. Leaper (2016) Is Staphylococcal Screening and Suppression an Effective Interventional Strategy for Reduction of Surgical Site Infection? Surg Infect (Larchmt), 17, 158-66. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26836053
Tanner, J., W. Padley, O. Assadian, D. Leaper, M. Kiernan & C. Edmiston (2015) Do surgical care bundles reduce the risk of surgical site infections in patients undergoing colorectal surgery? A systematic review and cohort meta-analysis of 8,515 patients. Surgery, 158, 66-77. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25920911

Vaccine hesitancy and the role of social scientists in infection prevention with A/Professor Holly Seale

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In this episode Brett Mitchell talks to Associate Professor Holly Seale about the role of social scientists, vaccine hesitancy, booster vaccines and the potential implications for the next influenza season. Holly is an infectious disease social scientist at the School of Population Health at the University of New South Wales in Australia. She has over 15 years of experience in undertaking social science research focused on improving confidence and engagement of different at-risk groups with immunisation and other prevention strategies.

Environmental decontamination reduces healthcare infections - a systematic review with Alexandra Peters

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Alexandra Peters, who works in Prof. Didier Pittet's group at the University Hospitals of Geneva and with a WHO Collaborating Centre. We discuss a new systematic review that demonstrates that there is significant evidence that environmental decontamination reduces healthcare-associated infections and colonisations and also progress on a new Healthcare Environmentsl Hygiene (HEH) self-assessment tool, the results of which will shortly be published.

Papers that we discuss are:

Peters, A., Schmid, M.N., Parneix, P. et al. Impact of environmental hygiene interventions on healthcare-associated infections and patient colonization: a systematic review. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 11, 38 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186 - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13756-022-01075-1#article-info

Accepted paper, shortly to appear in the AJIC website:

Peters, A., Schmid, M., deKraker, M. et al. Results of an international pilot survey on healthcare environmental hygiene at the facility level. American Journal of Infection Control (2022)

Also mentioned:

Brett G Mitchell, Lisa Hall, Nicole White, Adrian G Barnett, Kate Halton, David L Paterson, Thomas V Riley, Anne Gardner, Katie Page, Alison Farrington, Christian A Gericke, Nicholas Graves, An environmental cleaning bundle and health-care-associated infections in hospitals (REACH): a multicentre, randomised trial, The Lancet Infectious Diseases,
Volume 19, Issue 4, 2019, Pages 410-418, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30714-X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147330991830714X

Deverick J Anderson, Rebekah W Moehring, David J Weber, Sarah S Lewis, Luke F Chen, J Conrad Schwab, Paul Becherer, Michael Blocker, Patricia F Triplett, Lauren P Knelson, Yuliya Lokhnygina, William A Rutala, Daniel J Sexton, Effectiveness of targeted enhanced terminal room disinfection on hospital-wide acquisition and infection with multidrug-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile: a secondary analysis of a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial with crossover design (BETR Disinfection), The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 18, Issue 8, 2018, Pages 845-853, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30278-0 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1473309918302780

Infection Prevention Team Staffing levels - Less (staff) is more (infections)?

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 08:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan use a recent paper published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology to start a discussion about an relationship between IPC Team staffiing levels and levels of healthcare-associated infections. How are staffing levels set and is it just a number or is there more to it? The papers that we discuss are listed below.

1. Clifford RJ, Newhart D, Laguio-Vila MR, Gutowski JL, Bronstein MZ, Lesho EP. Infection preventionist staffing levels and rates of 10 types of healthcare-associated infections: A 9-year ambidirectional observation. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2022:1-6. doi:10.1017/ice.2021.507

2. Mitchell BG, Hall L, MacBeth D, Gardner A, Halton K. Hospital infection control units: staffing, costs, and priorities. Am J Infect Control. 2015;43:612-6. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2015.02.016

3. Dickstein Y, Nir-Paz R, Pulcini C, Cookson B, Beovic B, Tacconelli E, et al. Staffing for infectious diseases, clinical microbiology and infection control in hospitals in 2015: results of an ESCMID member survey. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2016;22:812 e9- e17. doi:10.1016/j.cmi.2016.06.014

Could a virtual Infection Prevention Service provide support in middle and low income countries? With Prof Gonzalo Bearman

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 07:33:00 +1100

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Professor Gonzalo Bearman, Chair, Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiologist/Medical Director of VCU Healthcare and the Richard P. Wenzel Professor of Internal Medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System (full CV here)

Following on from the increase in virtual working due to the pandemic, we discuss the potential for providing healthcare facilities in low and middle income countries with virtual support and consulting. The papers that we discuss are listed here.

1. Jones, T., Marimuthu, K., Bearman, G. Virtual Infection Prevention and Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, International Journal of Infectious Diseases,
Volume 117, 2022, Pages 93-96, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.01.065.

2. Anderson, D., Miller, B., Chen, L., Adcock, L., Cook, E., Cromer, A., . . . Sexton, D. (2011). The Network Approach for Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections: Long-Term Effect of Participation in the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 32(4), 315-322. https://doi.org/10.1086/658940

3.Pryor, R., Vokes, R., Anderson, D., & Bearman, G. (2021). Virtual infection prevention—The next frontier. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 42(11), 1374-1375. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.1404

Hand drying - a lot of hot air?

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 15:01:25 +1100

In this episode, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan discuss methods of drying hands after hand hygiene has been performed, with a focus on hand dryers versus paper towel. Personal details about Martin's habits are disclosed as we mull this over and present some papers.

Papers presented include:

1. Suen, L. K., Lung, V. Y., Boost, M. V., Au-Yeung, C. H., & Siu, G. K. (2019). Microbiological evaluation of different hand drying methods for removing bacteria from washed hands. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-7. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50239-4

2. Reynolds, K. A., Sexton, J. D., Norman, A., & McClelland, D. J. (2021). Comparison of electric hand dryers and paper towels for hand hygiene: a critical review of the literature. Journal of applied microbiology, 130(1), 25-39. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32794646/

3. Best, E., Parnell, P., Couturier, J., Barbut, F., Le Bozec, A., Arnoldo, L., ... & Wilcox, M. H. (2018). Environmental contamination by bacteria in hospital washrooms according to hand-drying method: a multi-centre study. Journal of Hospital Infection, 100(4), 469-475. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30006281/

WHO Global Outreach Alert and Response Network (GOARN) with Dr Peta-Anne Zimmerman

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 14:50:41 +1100

The WHO Global Outreach Alert and Response Network (GOARN) is the topic for this podcast. We talk with Dr Peta-Anne Zimmerman about the network, what is does and how to get involved.

Dr Peta-Anne Zimmerman is Senior Lecturer and Program Advisor for the Griffith University and is Board Director of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. She is also a Senior Faculty and Focal Point for the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network of the World Health Organization.

The weblink to GOARN for more information is https://extranet.who.int/goarn/

Mouth Care Matters - Oral hygiene & healthcare associated infection

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 10:14:40 +1100

In this episode we return to another ICM favourite topic, healthcare-associated pneumonia that is not device-associated. Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Mark Garvey, Director of Infection Prevention and Helen Woodall, Senior Dental Nurse, both of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust about the 'Mouth Care Matters' initiative. Education of registered nurses and healthcare assistants was a key part of the strategy, which ultimately resulted in a significant reduction in infections.

Note that in England a 'Trust' is an NHS healthcare provider organisation which may be made up of more than one hospital or unit.

The paper outlining the initiative and results can be found here https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(21)00275-9/fulltext

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - uses and considerations with Adjunct A/Professor Greg Whiteley

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 15:00:00 +1100

In this podcast, Brett talks to Adjunct A/Professor Greg Whiteley about adenosine triphosphate (ATP). We chat about its use in healthcare as a way to evaluate environmental cleanliness.

Greg is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, and is also an adjunct Fellow in the School of Medicine at Western Sydney University. Greg is also the Executive Chairman of Whiteley Corporation, a manufacturer of Therapeutic Goods based in the Hunter Region of New South Wales. His particular expertise is in the measurement of cleanliness, particularly based on rapid ATP testing where he is internationally renowned, published and is a regular keynote conference speaker.

Airborne Transmission - would air filtration reduce a range of infections and why is there reluctance to recognise it? With Matt Butler, Christine Peters and Evonne Curran

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 08:00:36 +1100

In this, the first episode of 2022, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Matt Butler, Consultant Geriatrician (Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK), Dr Christine Peters, Consultant Microbiologist (NHS Greater Glasgow, Scotland) and Dr Evonne Curran, now an independent IPC Consultant. We start off by discussing how Matt came to design a study that looks at the effect of air filtration on a range of infections, including respiratory viruses and more 'common' pathogens like Clostridium difficile. We also discuss why it had taken so long for airborne transmission to be accepted as a mode of transmission. Books recommended by Evonne in the podcast are listed below.

Think Again: The power of knowing what you don't know by Adam Grant (https://www.adamgrant.net/book/think-again/) ISBN: 9780753553886

Seeing what others don't by Gary Klein ISBN: 9781857886788

Paper by Andrew Conway-Morris referred to in the podcast:

Andrew Conway Morris, Katherine Sharrocks, Rachel Bousfield, Leanne Kermack, Mailis Maes, Ellen Higginson, Sally Forrest, Joana Pereira-Dias, Claire Cormie, Tim Old, Sophie Brooks, Islam Hamed, Alicia Koenig, Andrew Turner, Paul White, R Andres Floto, Gordon Dougan, Effrossyni Gkrania-Klotsas, Theodore Gouliouris, Stephen Baker, Vilas Navapurkar, The Removal of Airborne Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Other Microbial Bioaerosols by Air Filtration on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Surge Units, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2021;, ciab933, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab933

The 2021 Christmas Special!

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 11:11:33 +1100

In this largely unedited Christmas special podcast, Martin, Phil and Brett reflect on podcasts undertaken in 2021 and the year that was. This podcast is a little longer as we "chinwag" about a range of different topics and issues and have a laugh along the way. We hope you enjoy.

25 years of Contact Precautions, but benefit or harm and what is the evidence? With Prof Jennie Wilson

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 07:24:35 +1100

In this week’s episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Professor Jennie Wilson of the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London and current Infection Prevention Society President. We discuss her recent editorial, co-written with Associate Professor Jacqui Prieto from the University of Southampton. After 25 years of contact precautions, first introduced as putative best practice, the evidence to support this intervention has not appeared and there are suggestions that harms may be being caused through poor implementation. Contact precautions add PPE and physical isolation to Standard Precautions, however does this lead to over, and inappropriate use of PPE that is not required?

Papers cited during the podcast include:

Wilson J, Prieto J. Re-visiting contact precautions – 25 years on. Journal of Infection Prevention. 2021;22:242-4. Doi: 1177/17571774211059988
Bearman G, Abbas S, Masroor N, Sanogo K, Vanhoozer G, Cooper K, et al. Impact of Discontinuing Contact Precautions for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2018;39:676-82. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29580304

Ventilation and pathogen transmission with Simon Witts

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 14:55:30 +1100

In this podcast, Phil and Brett talk to Simon Witts on a wide ranging topics related to ventilation and also touch on air scrubbers (purifiers). Simon is Director of Engineering at VA Science, with extensive experience in hospital and building ventilation design. We cover topics such as air changes, what makes a good ventilation system and hotel quarantine. We also cover practical things like where best to sit on a bus to reduce the risk of infection.

Australia‘s Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer - Alison McMillan on leadership and negotiation

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 13:51:24 +1100

In this podcast, Phil and Brett talk to Adjunct Professor Alison McMillan on the topics of leadership and negotiation. Alison is Australia's Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer. We hear first hand experiences related to COVID and tips for building relationships and nursing leadership.

Professor (Practice) Alison McMillan PSM was appointed as Australia's Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer in November 2019. In June 2021 Alison was awarded a Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to driving the Government’s national health response priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly to infection prevention measures.

Wearable proximity devices and contact tracing with Steph Curtis

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 10:40:31 +1100

In the last ACIPC conference special podcast, Brett and Phil talk to Stephanie Curtis about wearable proximity devices for nurses and doctors - and their use for contact tracing. We also talk about other potential uses. Stephanie is an epidemiologist at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre. She worked on the COVID-19 response in Victoria over 2020-2021 and recently completed Australia's field epidemiology training program, the MAE, based at Alfred Health and Burnet Institute.

Stephanie's presented findings from pilot work of proximity trackers at the ACIPC conference. The paper for this study is published in Infection, Disease and Health https://www.idhjournal.com.au/article/S2468-0451(21)00098-5/fulltext

The science of pathogen transmission via the air with Prof Lidia Morawska - ACIPC conference special

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 11:06:10 +1100

In this third special edition from the 2021 ACIPC Conference, Brett and Martin talk to Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska about the science of air. Lidia was named in Times magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for helping highlight the airborne spread of COVID-19. Topics includes in this podcast include the science of aerosolisation from the respiratory tract, activities or source that dictate particle size and terminology around droplet and airbourne transmission.

About Lidia:

Professor Lidia Morawska is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane. Lidia is an author of over 950 journal papers, book chapters and conference papers and has also been involved at the executive level with a number of relevant national and international professional bodies and has been acting as an advisor to the WHO.

Significant papers:

1. Zhou L, Yao M, Zhang X, Hu B, Li X, Chen H, et al. Breath-, air- and surface-borne SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals. J Aerosol Sci. 2021;152:105693. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33078030
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557302/pdf/main.pdf
2. Morawska L, Buonanno G. The physics of particle formation and deposition during breathing. Nat Rev Phys. 2021:1-2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33778373
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985916/pdf/42254_2021_Article_307.pdf
3. Cortellessa G, Stabile L, Arpino F, Faleiros DE, van den Bos W, Morawska L, et al. Close proximity risk assessment for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Sci Total Environ. 2021;794:148749. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8242194/pdf/main.pdf
4. Morawska L, Tang JW, Bahnfleth W, Bluyssen PM, Boerstra A, Buonanno G, et al. How can airborne transmission of COVID-19 indoors be minimised? Environ Int. 2020;142:105832. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32521345
5. Stockwell RE, Ballard EL, O'Rourke P, Knibbs LD, Morawska L, Bell SC. Indoor hospital air and the impact of ventilation on bioaerosols: a systematic review. J Hosp Infect. 2019;103:175-84. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31279762

6. Morawska L, Milton DK. It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Clin Infect Dis. 2020;71:2311-3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32628269

Use of video reflexive ethnography in IPC, clinical care and nurse education - an ACIPC 2021 special with Dr Mary Wyer and Dr Su-Yin Hor

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:15:00 +1100

In this second special edition from the 2021 ACIPC Conference, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan talk to Drs Mary Wyer and Su-yin Hor. Mary and Su-Yin's work on Video Reflexive Ethnography (VRE - not that one) is world-reknowned with many publications. In this discussion they outline how the use of video to examine and develop practice has helped in biopreparedness as well as its uses in other areas of infection prevention and control and nurse education.

Papers referred to in this podcast:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32089464/
Iedema, R., Carroll, K., Collier, A., Hor, S. Y., Mesman, J., & Wyer, M. (2018). Video-reflexive ethnography in health research and healthcare improvement: theory and application. CRC Press.

Urinary catheter awareness - an ACIPC Conference special with Dr Gillian Ray-Barruel

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 15:15:00 +1100

In this special ACIPC conference episode, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan talk to Dr Gillian-Ray-Barruel, from Griffith University School of Nursing and Midwifery and QEII Jubilee Hospital, Brisbane.

Gillian is presenting at the 2021 virtual ACIPC Conference on urinary catheter awareness. Gillian has an long standing interest in medical device placement, and this paper focuses on patient and staff awareness of the need for the catheter. Naturally we digress into other areas such as consent and nurse advocacy!

Papers that we refer to in this session:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11042237/

Staph. capitis in NICU - Global problem or just another CoNS trick? - with Dr Alicia Demirjian

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +1100

In this podcast, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Alicia Demirjian about the issue of seemingly increasing reports of Staphylococcus capitis cases in neonates. Alicia is Consultant Epidemiologist at the Evelina Children's hospital in London and leads the antimicrobial resistance and prescribing team at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - formerly Public Health England. Alicia has been working on this issue for a while now and we discuss the problem (and if there is one), findings to date and possible interventions. Some of the papers that we discuss are here, as is a link to the video on how to clean an incubator, a complex piece of equipment that is often still contaminated after cleaning and disinfection.

Cleaning video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELF-0MTFJfE

Papers:

Wirth, T., M. Bergot, et al (2020) Niche specialization and spread of Staphylococcus capitis involved in neonatal sepsis. Nat Microbiol, 5, 735-745. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32341568

Thorn, L. M., et al (2020) Risk factors for Staphylococcus capitis pulsotype NRCS-A colonisation among premature neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary-care hospital: a retrospective case-control study. Infect Prev Pract, 2, 100057. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34368703

Decalonne, M., et al. (2020) Staphylococcus capitis isolated from bloodstream infections: a nationwide 3-month survey in 38 neonatal intensive care units. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis, 39, 2185-2194. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32519215

Ory, J., et al (2019) Successful implementation of infection control measure in a neonatal intensive care unit to combat the spread of pathogenic multidrug resistant Staphylococcus capitis. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control, 8, 57. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30962919

Laurent, F. & M. Butin (2019) Staphylococcus capitis and NRCS-A clone: the story of an unrecognized pathogen in neonatal intensive care units. Clin Microbiol Infect, 25, 1081-1085. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30928561

Butin, M., et al (2019) Sources and reservoirs of Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A inside a NICU. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control, 8, 157. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31636900

Butin, M., et al (2017) Worldwide Endemicity of a Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus capitis Clone Involved in Neonatal Sepsis. Emerg Infect Dis, 23, 538-539. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28221122
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5382751/pdf/16-0833.pdf

Butin, M., et al (2016) Wide geographical dissemination of the multiresistant Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A clone in neonatal intensive-care units. Clin Microbiol Infect, 22, 46-52. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26404028
https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(15)00850-2/pdf

Fundamental and missed care impacts on healthcare-associated infection with Prof Heather Loveday

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 08:25:30 +1100

In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Prof Heather Loveday, Director of the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London about an lecture recently given at the 2021 IPS Conference. The topic discussed centres on the role that fundamental care has in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and the impact of 'missed' care.

Papers for futher reading on these topics are listed below.

Journal of Clinical Nursing special issue on fundamental care: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652702/2018/27/11-12

Richards, DA, Hilli, A, Pentecost, C, Goodwin, VA, Frost, J. Fundamental nursing care: A systematic review of the evidence on the effect of nursing care interventions for nutrition, elimination, mobility and hygiene. J Clin Nurs. 2018; 27: 2179– 2188. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14150
Vollman KM. Interventional patient hygiene: discussion of the issues and a proposed model for implementation of the nursing care basics. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2013 Oct;29(5):250-5. doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2013.04.004. Epub 2013 Jun 6. PMID: 23746440. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964339713000414?via%3Dihub Interventional patient hygiene model: Infection control and nursing share responsibility for patient safety Maryanne McGuckin, Dr. ScEd, MT(ASCP), Arlene Shubin, Marianne Hujcs, RN, MSN DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2007.01.010 Recio-Saucedo A, Dall'Ora C, Maruotti A, Ball J, Briggs J, Meredith P, Redfern OC, Kovacs C, Prytherch D, Smith GB, Griffiths P. What impact does nursing care left undone have on patient outcomes? Review of the literature. J Clin Nurs. 2018 Jun;27(11-12):2248-2259. doi: 10.1111/jocn.14058. Epub 2017 Oct 16. PMID: 28859254; PMCID: PMC6001747. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jocn.14058

Monoclonal antibodies and future IPC priorities - a chat with Jon Otter

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 09:00:00 +1100

In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Jon Otter of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust in the UK about a couple of Jon's recent blog postings on the popular "Reflections" blog (https://reflectionsipc.com/). We first discuss a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine that reported on a study that examined the use of monoclonal antibodies in preventing infection in unvaccinated household contacts of COVID that can be found here https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2109682.

Then we go on to discuss Jon's recent presentation on future priorities for iPC in healthcare, the slides for which are available here (https://jonotter.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/211014-the-future-of-healthcare-and-ipc.pptx).

Transmission of Norovirus to other room occupants with Dr Carl-Johan Frankel

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 10:00:00 +1100

In this episode, Prof Brett Mitchell talks to Dr Carl-Johan Frankel from the Department of Infection Control, Lund University, Sweden about his recent paper examining the risk of transmission of Norovirus to roomates. Does norovirus transmit readily to other occupants? The findings may well surprise you! The paper is here: https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00313-3/fulltext

Other papers referred to:

Risk of transmission to subsequent room occupants: https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(15)00312-6/fulltext

Prolonged environmental survival of small round structured viruses: https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(97)90230-9/pdf

Surgical Site Infection Surveillance - Who cares? With Dr Jon Otter at the IPS Conference

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 17:38:48 +1000

In another special edition from the 2021 IPS conference in Liverpool UK, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Jon Otter, who presented a paper on improving and broadening surgical site infection surveillance. But to whom does it matter and how can IPC Teams achieve engagement with other clinical specialities and managers of healthcare providers?

Shockingly in this episode Jon admits to finding a qualitative study of interest - Tanner J, Padley W, Davey S, Murphy K, Brown B Patients’ experiences of surgical site infection. Journal of Infection Prevention 2012; 13: 164-8.
(https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1757177412452677)

Another paper discussed is a further study by Prof Judith Tanner, in which bundle adherence is low, however is data feedback getting to the right place?

Tanner J, Kiernan M, Hilliam R et al. Effectiveness of a care bundle to reduce surgical site infections in patients having open colorectal surgery. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 2016; 98: 270-4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226025/pdf/rcsann.2016.0072.pdf

Are guidelines letting us down? With Evonne Curran and Brett Mitchell from the IPS Conference 2021

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 19:00:00 +1000

In this episode from the IPS conference, Prof Brett Mitchell is joined by Dr Evonne Curran who has worked in the field of infection prevention and control for a number of years, was a Nurse Consultant with Health Protection Scotland and is now an independent consultant. Together they discuss the relevance of guidelines to clinical practice and whether the development process is really producing guidance that is useful in the field of nfection prevention. In this podcast these papers are referred to:

Smith GC, Pell JP Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials. BMJ 2003; 327: 1459-61. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC300808/pdf/32701459.pdf

Yeh RW, Valsdottir LR, Yeh MW et al. Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial. BMJ 2018; 363: k5094. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/30545967/

Greenhalgh T Will COVID-19 be evidence-based medicine's nemesis? PLoS Med 2020; 17: e1003266. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7326185/pdf/pmed.1003266.pdf

Year in Infection Control - papers selected by Prof Andreas Voss at ICPIC 2021

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 08:26:00 +1000

In this final episode at ICPIC 2021 (Geneva), Martin Kiernan talks to Professor Andreas Voss from the Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc) and Canisus-Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis in the Netherlands. Andreas is always a sought after speaker for his engaging style whilst getting to the heart of the matter. To get the most from this podcast, you might need to look at the papers we mention below.

Endoscopes

Benowitz I, Moulton-Meissner HA, Epstein L, Arduino MJ. Gastrointestinal Flexible Endoscopes: Infection Control Risks, Lessons Learned from Outbreaks, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidance. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Clinics of North America. 2020;30(4):723-33 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1052515720300702?via%3Dihub

Sinks

De Geyter D, Blommaert L, Verbraeken N, Sevenois M, Huyghens L, Martini H, et al. The sink as a potential source of transmission of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in the intensive care unit. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2017;6:24. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34111433

Decreased other infections (STD and Norovirus)

Nelson B. The positive effects of covid-19. BMJ. 2020;369:m1785. http://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1785.abstract

Bruggink LD, Garcia-Clapes A, Tran T, Druce JD, Thorley BR. Decreased incidence of enterovirus and norovirus infections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Victoria, Australia, 2020. Commun Dis Intell (2018). 2021 Jan 29;45. doi: 10.33321/cdi.2021.45.5. PMID: 33573536.

Impact on ocular health

Bahkir, Fayiqa Ahamed; Grandee, Srinivasan Subramanian Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on digital device-related ocular health, Indian Journal of Ophthalmology: November 2020 - Volume 68 - Issue 11 - p 2378-2383 doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_2306_20

Dog-assisted therapy

Edner A, Lindstrom-Nilsson M, Melhus A. Low risk of transmission of pathogenic bacteria between children and the assistance dog during animal-assisted therapy if strict rules are followed. J Hosp Infect. 2021;115:5-9.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00178-X/fulltext

Lace up masks

Wang X, Lin F, Wang Z, Hu J, Li X, Zhu B, et al. The defects of lace-up surgical masks and related solutions in operating rooms. J Hosp Infect. 2021;115:64-70. https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00237-1/fulltext#relatedArticles

Migrane and mask wearing

Bharatendu C, Ong JJY, Goh Y, Tan BYQ, Chan ACY, Tang JZY, et al. Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) restores the N95 face mask induced cerebral hemodynamic alterations among Healthcare Workers during COVID-19 Outbreak. J Neurol Sci. 2020;417:117078.

https://www.jns-journal.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0022-510X%2820%2930415-9

A nose for pneumonia

Chen, C.-Y., Lin, W.-C. & Yang, H.-Y. Diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia using electronic nose sensor array signals: solutions to improve the application of machine learning in respiratory research. Respir Res 2020;21:45 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-020-1285-6

Social media for epidemiologists

Hammer CC, Boender TS, Thomas DR. Social media for field epidemiologists (#SoMe4epi): How to use Twitter during the #COVID19 pandemic. Int J Infect Dis. 2021.

https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1201-9712(21)00437-9

Use of Emoji in communication

Lotfinejad, N., Assadi, R., Aelami, M. H. & Pittet, D. Emojis in public health and how they might be used for hand hygiene and infection prevention and control. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2020;9:27. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-020-0692-2

On Call IPC Services

Humphreys H. Infection prevention and control advice out-of-hours. J Hosp Infect. 2020;105(4):795-6.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30262-0/fulltext

Handshake/Fist Bump

Sklansky M, Nadkarni N, Ramirez-Avila L. Banning the handshake from the health care setting. JAMA. 2014;311(24):2477-8.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/1873637

Mela S, Whitworth DE. The fist bump: a more hygienic alternative to the handshake. Am J Infect Control. 2014;42(8):916-7.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25087144

Elbow or hand

Liu H, Gao L, Sun C. Elbow instead of hand: is it more helpful or harmful? J Public Health (Oxf). 2020.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32529204

Time to clean: Calculating the staffing requirement with An Caluwaerts

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 15:17:52 +1000

In another special edition from ICPIC, Martin talks to An Caluwaerts, IPC Specialist from Kliniek Sint Jan, Brussels. This was a poster presentation that was selected as part of a poster walk and it is a practical piece of work that describes the process of calculating the number of staff (and hours) needed to clean a standard hospital ward. A copy of the poster can be downloaded below.

DETERMINING STAFFING LEVELS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANING: TIME MEASUREMENTS IN NON-CRITICAL CARE UNITS IN AN ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL IN BRUSSELS

From whole genome sequencing to sinks with Dr Amy Mathers

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 08:18:13 +1000

In another episode from the 2021 ICPIC Conference, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Amy Mathers, who moderated and spoke at a session on whole genome sequencing and also the issue of plasmid-mediated outbreaks. World-reknowned for her work on drains and sinks at the University of Virginia (see http://uvasinklab.org/), here are just a couple of the research outputs.

Intensive Care Unit Wastewater Interventions to Prevent Transmission of Multispecies Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase–Producing organisms

https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciy052/4834952

Spread from the Sink to the Patient: In Situ Study Using Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)-Expressing Escherichia coli To Model Bacterial Dispersion from Hand-Washing Sink-Trap Reservoirs

http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2017/02/13/AEM.03327-16.abstract

Publish or we are all damned: The effect of COVID on journal publications with John McConnell of the Lancet

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 08:18:04 +1000

In this episode from the 2021 ICPIC Conference, Martin Kiernan talks to John McConnell, Editor-in-Chief of the Lancet Infectious Diseases about his keynote yesterday about the impact (and vice-versa) of the COVID pandemic on publishing both in peer-reviewed journals and in pre-print forms.

An enormous increase in the number of submissions and diversification in countries submitting are amongst the areas that we discuss. Ultimately, the research and publication process has been critical in the dissemination of the most useful data that have shaped interventions and treatments.

Looking to ICPIC Conference 2021 with Prof Didier Pittet and Prof Stephan Harbarth

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 01:00:00 +1000

In this special episode, Martin Kiernan talks to the ICPIC 2021 Conference organisers, Profs Didier Pittet and Stephan Harbarth about the upcoming meeting to be held in Geneva. With over 400 delegates attending in person from all over Europe and further afield, this will be the first major meeting to have a significant face-to-face element since the onset of the COVID pandemic.

We discuss COVID safety, programme highlights and whether hybrid design will be the future of conferences. Details of the conference and the programme can be found here https://conference.icpic.com/

We hope to bring a few daily highlights during the meeting, so watch out for special episodes.

Cleaning up the air using air cleaners and purifiers with Jason Monty

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 07:06:00 +1000

In this episode Brett and Phil discuss improving the quality of air to reduce the risk of infection from airborne pathogens with Professor Jason Monty. We discuss air cleaner and purifiers, their role, what to consider when purchasing and practical considerations for their use.

Prof Monty is Head of Department and a Professor with the Fluid Mechanics Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Melbourne. Jason is an expert in experimental fluid mechanics and hydrodynamics and is experienced with field measurements of atmospheric turbulence. In recent times, Jason has worked with clinicians in improving air quality to reduce the risk of infection from COVID-19.

Link to publications

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/infection-control-and-hospital-epidemiology/article/abs/use-of-portable-air-cleaners-to-reduce-aerosol-transmission-on-a-hospital-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid19-ward/17C5199D3903ABD465017C34AA741826

Which air cleaners work best to remove aerosols that contain viruses?

https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/news/28835-which-air-cleaners-work-best-to-remove-aerosols-that-contain-viruses%3F

CAUTI - decades of little progress?

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 08:02:35 +1000

In this episode Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan chew the fat over the fact that, despite knowing that it makes up a great proportion of HCAIs globally, progress can be measured in a series of small victories without actually winning the war. We discuss a new systematic review that suggests benefit from meatal cleansing with antiseptics (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8190044/pdf/bmjopen-2020-046817.pdf) as well as barriers to progress in this important issue https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00149-3/fulltext

We will return to this topic again!

Mind your language! With Claire Kilpatrick and Martin Shovel

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:22:04 +1000

In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to WHO Consultant Claire Kilpatrick and Martin Shovel, a writer, satirical cartoonist and communications coach who runs Creativityworks, an organisation that offers training and workshops in the art of communication (https://creativityworks.net/).

We look at words and they way that they make people feel. Cold words (like 'compliance') are a huge turn-off, so can we find ways of gaining better engagement through the use of language?

Read one of Martin's blogs on the use of language here https://creativityworks.net/blog/?id=a-word-about-words

Also mentioned is a 1998 paper by Edna Kretzer and Elaine Larson (https://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(98)80008-4/pdf)

Compassion and Infection Prevention - Not mutually exclusive!

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 08:00:00 +1000

In this week's episode Brett MItchell and Martin Kiernan talk to Julie Storr. Julie is a consultant to the World Health Organisation who originally started her infection prevention career in Oxford in the UK. We hear how Julie was motivated by patient stories of isolation and virtual imprisonment in elderly care settings to try and bring compassion into play, supported by sound infection prevention principles. Here are links to some of the outputs from Julie's work to date.

The open letter in Nursing Times: Infection prevention and control should never be at the expense of compassionate care https://www.nursingtimes.net/opinion/open-letter-infection-prevention-and-control-should-never-be-at-the-expense-of-compassionate-care-16-10-2020/
AJIC letter: Storr J, Kilpatrick C, Vassallo A. Safe infection prevention and control practices with compassion - A positive legacy of COVID-19. Am J Infect Control. 2021;49(3):407-408. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2020.12.016 https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ceIEijjYWgI7
BMJ Opinion piece: Enforced restrictions to care home access—unfair, unnecessary, and harmful https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/07/15/enforced-restrictions-to-care-home-access-unfair-unnecessary-and-harmful/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=hootsuite&utm_content=sme&utm_campaign=usage
Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference https://www.compassionomics.com/
WHO (‎2016)‎ Guidance for managing ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/250580
Compassion Rounds: The Taskforce for Global Health - Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics https://taskforce.org/face/#:~:text=The%20Focus%20Area%20for%20Compassion,to%2Dday%20decision%2Dmaking .
Resources for care homes developed with campaigning group Care Home Relatives Scotland: www.enablesafecare.org
Webber telecasts 9 March 2021: Reimagining Infection Prevention With Compassion - A Positive Legacy of COVID-19? https://webbertraining.com/recordingslibraryc4.php

COVID-19 - Your Questions Answered

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 08:10:12 +1000

In this Q&A style podcast, listeners to our podcast were offered the opportunity to pose COVID-19 related questions to a panel. Our panel included Prof Kirsty Buising, Liz Orr and A/Prof Caroline Marshall. All three panelists have been involved in the COVID-19 response in their organisations.

A range of topics were discussed, including aerosol-generating behaviours, ventilation, PPE, vaccination, cleaning and visitors.

Infusion set replacement intervals, 4 days Vs 7 days with Prof Claire Rickard

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +1000

In this episode we discuss a paper published in the Lancet which compares the effectiveness and costs of 7-day versus 4-day infusion set replacement to prevent CRBSI with lead author Professor Claire Rickard. Professor Rickard is a Professor of Infection Prevention & Vascular Access at the University of Queensland. Claire established the Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research (AVATAR) in 2007 as an investigator network to promote high quality work in the field of vascular access.

Link to the publication: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00351-2/fulltext

Assessing preventability of Staph aureus bacteraemia with Daniela Karanfilovska

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 08:03:20 +1000

In this week's episode, Prof Brett Mitchell talks to Daniela Karanfilovska. Daniela is an infection prevention nurse at Alfred Health in Melbourne. She led a paper published recently in the Journal of Hospital Infection in which a Delphi method was used to create an assessment tool that can be used to assess the preventability of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. The tools also outlines potential action. The paper can be found here https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00223-1/fulltext.

The Delphi technique uses a repeated survey approach where the opinions of experts can be used to refine and develop a consensus as to elements that should form part of the tool under development. Other papers that have used this method or a modified version include:

Williams, C. K. and H. Carnahan (2013). "Development and validation of tools for assessing use of personal protective equipment in health care." Am J Infect Control 41(1): 28-32.
O'Boyle, C., M. Jackson and S. J. Henly (2002). "Staffing requirements for infection control programs in US health care facilities: Delphi project." Am J Infect Control 30(6): 321-333.
Lynch, P., M. Jackson and S. Saint (2001). "Research Priorities Project, year 2000: establishing a direction for infection control and hospital epidemiology." Am J Infect Control 29(2): 73-78.
Meddings, J., S. Saint, K. E. Fowler, E. Gaies, A. Hickner, S. L. Krein and S. J. Bernstein (2015). "The Ann Arbor Criteria for Appropriate Urinary Catheter Use in Hospitalized Medical Patients: Results Obtained by Using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method." Ann Intern Med 162(9 Suppl): S1-34.

Something in the air? With Dr Kirsty Buising

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 08:17:16 +1000

This week, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan are joined by Dr Kirsty Buising, infectious diseases physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who is also Deputy Director of the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship and chief investigator for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Centre for Research Excellence in Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Doherty Institute at Melbourne University. Together they discuss a paper just published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology in which small, domestic-level HEPA filtration devices were used to rapidly remove glycerine-based aerosol, used as a surrogate for respiratory viruses, from rooms and corridors in a hospital setting.This was an excellent example of a multi-disciplinary highly specialist team who drew on each other's strengths to work a a problem.

The full paper is here https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.21256152v1.abstract and two preprints from the work can be found here https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.29.21254590v1.abstract and here https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.21256152v1.abstract

Celebrating 20 years of Teleclass Education with Paul Webber

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:30:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin Kiernan and Brett Mitchell talk to Paul Webber in the 20th year of the Webber Teleclass series that remains free for all in low-income countries.

Originally envisaged by his friend and mentor Dr Syed Sattar as being a short series for an Canadian audience, there have now been in excess of 750 editions with episode audiences sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands. The speaker faculty is a veritable 'Who's who' in the infection prevention world and the free online recordings library is a great resource and can be found here https://webbertraining.com/recordingslibraryc4.php

The impact of heatlhcare associated infections - mortality, length of stay and cost

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 15:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, we discuss an article just published in Clinical Infectious Disease which reports data from 134 hospitals on mortality, length of stay and costs of common infections. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32822465/

Prevention of healthcare associated pneumonia (HAP) (Part A) with Dr Victoria Ewan

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 15:00:00 +1000

In this podcast, Martin and Brett talk healthcare associated pneumonia (HAP) with Dr Victoria Ewan. Vicky is consultant academic geriatrician at South Tees Hospitals (Middlesbrough, United Kingdom) who has undertaken ground breaking working around our understanding of HAP.

We talk about what HAP is, common causes and potential strategies to prevent. We plan on visiting this topic again at a latter date, hence this is "Part A".

Some papers we refer to in this podcast:

Reviews on this topic:

Gaming, apps and Infection Control with Dr Robbert Bentvelsen and Ender Holten

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 13:00:21 +1000

In this podcast, Brett Mitchell discusses a paper that provides an overview of available apps for HAI prevention, including functionality, quality and usefulness with two of the authors - Dr Robbert Bentvelsen (@rbentvelsen) and Ender Holten (@EnderHolt) from the Leiden University Medical Center (@LUMC_Leiden). The article "eHealth for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections: a scoping review" is published in the Journal of Hospital Infection.

Bentvelsen, R. G., Holten, E., Chavannes, N. H., & Veldkamp, K. E. (2021). eHealth for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections: a scoping review. Journal of Hospital Infection. (https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0195-6701%2821%2900182-1) In the podcast, reference is also made to a book. Details are: "Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping and Development" by Jeremy Gibson Bond. Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional;ISBN: 9780134659909

Role of clinical scientists in infection prevention and control with Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green

Wed, 26 May 2021 16:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin talks to Consultant Clinical Scientist Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green BEM about her role at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in the UK. Elaine is the first Clinical Scientist to also have the role of Infection Control Doctor in a UK hospital and we talk about the untapped potential for Clinical Scientists to contribute to infection prevention and control teams. Elaine is also on twitter (@girlymicro) has a blog (https://girlymicrobiologist.com/) and was recently awarded a British Epire Medal in recognition of her contribution as a Clinical Scientist.

Sociology and Qualitative research and IPC with Professor Maria Northcote and Dr Cassie Curryer

Wed, 19 May 2021 02:34:00 +1000

In this episode we briefly touch on the role of sociology and what it can bring to infection control. We also discuss the value of qualitative research in infection prevention and control. Our guests this week are Professor Maria Northcote (Avondale University College) and Dr Cassie Curryer (University of Newcastle).

Hand hygiene at critical points and the sequence of patient care with Professor Loreen Herwaldt

Wed, 12 May 2021 15:00:00 +1000

In this episode, Martin talks to Professor Loreen Herwaldt, from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. We discuss three new papers on hand hygiene compliance that have come from data originally collected that looked at the implementation of surveillance feedback and barrier precautions for a study published in the NEJM (Huskins, W.C., et al., Intervention to reduce transmission of resistant bacteria in intensive care. N Engl J Med, 2011. 364(15): p. 1407-18. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1000373?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Two new papers focusing on hand hygiene aspects of care have already been published and a third has also been accepted. The first looked at hand hygiene compliance at critical points of care (Chang, N.N., et al., Hand Hygiene Compliance at Critical Points of Care. Clin Infect Dis, 2021. 72(5): p. 814-820. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa130) and the second examined the sequence of patient care (Chang, N.C., et al., Hand hygiene and the sequence of patient care. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol, 2021: p. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.82). The third paper that we discuss is a forthcoming paper on the time taken to perform hand hygiene.

Unintended consequences for infection prevention and control during COVID-19

Wed, 05 May 2021 15:32:29 +1000

In this podcast, Phil and Brett discuss a paper from April 2021 published by Wee and colleagues, in the American Journal of Infection Control titled "Unintended consequences of infection prevention and control measures during COVID-19 pandemic"

Full reference: Wee, L. E. I., Conceicao, E. P., Tan, J. Y., Magesparan, K. D., Amin, I. B. M., Ismail, B. B. S., ... & Ling, M. L. (2021). Unintended consequences of infection prevention and control measures during COVID-19 pandemic. American Journal of Infection Control, 49(4), 469-477. Link to paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610096/

Hand hygiene with Professor Didier Pittet

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:45:21 +1000

In this podcast, we hear from Professor Didier Pittet about how the hand hygiene campaign originated from identifying a problem in one hospital and translating that across the world. We also discuss how COVID-19 may change behaviour long term, the theme for WHO Hand Hygiene Day on the 5th May, ideas for improving hand hygiene in your institution, the use of automated hand hygiene monitoring and influencing people.

Professor Didier Pittet is an infectious diseases expert and the director of the Infection Control Programme and WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, University Hospital of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Global Hand Hygiene Day information can be found here https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hand-hygiene-day/2021

The COVID-19 Evidence Taskforce with A/Professor Julian Elliott and Dr Tari Turner

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 17:00:00 +1000

The Taskforce brings together the peak health professional bodies across Australia whose members are providing clinical care to people with COVID-19. The Taskforce systematically review the literature and develop recommendations using GRADE. These are ‘living’ guidelines, updated with new research in near real-time in order to give reliable, up-to-the minute advice to clinicians providing frontline care. In this podcast, we talk to A/Professor Julian Elliott and Dr Tari Turner from the Taskforce. We discussed the role of the Taskforce, the new infection control panel, topics being explored and developing infection control recommendations.

Details about the Taskforce are here: https://covid19evidence.net.au/

Practical elements of healthcare environmental cleaning - With Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 03:12:00 +1000

In this podcast, Brett and Martin discuss a paper from March 2021 published by Assadian and colleagues, in the Journal of Hospital Infection. "Practical recommendations for routine cleaning and disinfection procedures in healthcare institutions: a narrative review" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33744383/.

We particularly liked the way that the paper is structured and that, although published in a focused scientific journal, the paper is accessible to all with an interest in hospital hygiene.

Assadian O, Harbarth S, Vos M, Knobloch JK, Asensio A, Widmer AF Practical recommendations for routine cleaning and disinfection procedures in healthcare institutions: a narrative review. J Hosp Infect 2021; doi 10.1016/j.jhin.2021.03.010.

COVID "Myths" with Dr Stephanie Dancer

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 10:07:18 +1100

In this Podcast we discuss the paper"Dismantling myths on the airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)" with Dr Stephanie Dancer https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33453351/

Introduction

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 22:17:20 +1100

In this Podcast, we introduce "Infection Control Matters" with some of our presenters.

Infection Control Matters

Cleaning is Patient Safety: Empowering the People Who Keep Hospitals Safe

Evidence or Efficiency? How We Make IPC Decisions

RCTs in Infection Prevention and Control - Are we getting the evidence that we need?

Who Do You Listen To? The Hidden Influencers of Hand Hygiene

C. difficile: Follow the Faeces

WISDOM: Using AI to Prioritise Surgical Wound Review

Candidozyma auris: Disinfection and the Biofilm Problem

Brush, Rinse, Prevent Pneumonia: The HAPPEN Trial Story

ESCMID Global 2026 Posters (Part 2): Patient Partnership, Communication and Collaboration

ESCMID Global 2026 – Selected Gems from the Poster Hall (Part 1)

Highlights from ESCMID 2026: Key Papers in Infection Control

ESCMID Global 2026: What Matters for Practice

Why Healthcare Cleaning Is Different: Reflections from Interclean 2026

Automated bloodstream infection surveillance - Measuring what matters?

Surfaces - High touch or high risk?

Do we feel that we are experts? Take two

Resourcing of hospital infection prevention and control programs

Hospital or Crime Scene? What Forensic Science Reveals About “Clean”

AMR at a National level - The 2025 ESPAUR Report

2025 Christmas Special

Unseen Reservoirs, Unseen Risks: Integrating Wastewater Surveillance with Patient-Level Insights into C. auris Spread

Can ward rounds transform IPC education?

Reducing harm at the Front Line: Oral Care driving down C. difficile and Line Care - the Power of Better Data

Posters from the 2025 Innovation Academy at ICPIC and from the UK IPS Conference

Infection Control Matters Live from the 2026 IPS Brighton Conference

Cutting CDC and IPC funding in the US - Implications and what can we do?

Safeguarding During Transit: RAF Expertise in High Consequence Infectious Disease Retrieval

The no diaper (AKA nappy) zone - reducing CAUTI?

Can modelling tell us what factors influence CAUTI in long and short-term catheters?

Leading Public Health, ID and IPC during challenging times

What's new in Surgical Site Infection Prevention? Update from EUCIC

Posters from the Hong Kong Infection Control Nurses Association conference

The Plume Room - adventures in toilet hygiene

Automated national HCAI surveillance - potential or pipedream?

A re-introduction to Infection Control Matters 1500 days on

National vs local IPC Guidelines - Lost in Translation?

Candidozyma auris from the lab to the front line: A discussion with UKHSA experts

Use of AI to create a podcast discussion - are we out of a job?

The Sinkbug Survey: Antibiotics, AMR, Chemicals and Plumbing

Surveillance for HCAI - What is important, feasible and useful - and what isn't..

nv-HAP surveillance too time-consuming? Semi-automated may be easier than you think

Methods of assessing effectiveness of hospital cleaning - a review and peek into the future?

Reducing CAUTI in intermittent self-catheterisation. The trial that didn't make it..

A poster walk at ACIPC 2024

Engaging Junior Doctors in IPC

The 2024 End of Year Special

In-room air purification to prevent respiratory infection in aged care - Does it help?

Do you have enough staff in your IP Team? Calculating the staffing requirement for your program

Could you have an ERCP-related outbreak? Sequencing to the rescue but you'll have to trash the scope!

Reducing glove use in the ambulance service

Can sensors and AI improve cleaning and patient safety?

Prevalence, fundamental care, UTI recorded live at the Infection Prevention Society Conference 2024

Is IPC the friend of sustainability?

The CLEEN study: Background and discussion with the authors

Removing contact precautions - what trial do we need?

Using AI in Infection Prevention: Opportunities and Dangers

An award-winning MDT collaborative approach to reducing risks from water in a large organisation

Healthcare Cleaning - a visit to Interclean that's an eye-opener

A novel approach to employing environmental service workers and an outbreak (or pseudo-outbreak) of SSI

More posters from ESCMID Global 2024, inc C. diff, UV-C, wastewater surveillance, LA-MRSA

Posters from ESCMID Global 2024 - Part 1

Reflections on Day 3 at ESCMID Global 2024

Reflections on day 2 of ESCMID Global 2024

Discussing the new WHO infectious respiratory particles paper at ECCMID (With Prof Cath Noakes)

ECCMID 2024 - The year in infection control

Reflections on the first morning at ECCMID 2024

Visualising infection transmission using genomics

Investigating a unique CPE strain outbreak - a possible new place to look?

C. difficile in England is on the rise, but why? A sign of a system on the edge and could a new variant push it over?

What do C. difficile and HAP have in common - toilet plume??

A national CPE survey of healthcare workers knowledge and some interesting sink practices

90% Reduction in MRSA bacteraemia. Possible but patience is a virtue!

C. difficile: Disinfectants, attachment and strain variations

The 2023 End of Year/Christmas Special

If you could have anything in IPC, what would you want?

Would you be admitted to a room where a previous person was infected?

MDRO Plasmid-related outbreaks - is there anything we can do? With Jon Otter

Ice machines - a chilling thought?

Detection of pathogens in the neonatal ICU environment with Dr Ginny Moore