A Glimpse into the Safe Care Campaign to Prevent the Spread of Infection
Armando and Victoria Nahum formed the Safe Care Campaign after three members of their family, including their son, acquired infections during a hospital stay. Unfortunately, the Nahum's son died of his infection and Victoria has an incurable auto-immune disease too.
The Safe Care Campaign is an organization that was created to help stamp out HAIs also known as hospital acquired infections. The main objective is to precipitate important paradigm shifts in the practices and theories in a health care setting in regards to different types of hygiene as well as precautionary measures to ensure safe patient care.
This organization is the answer that a serious problem that one family faced in regards to hospital acquired infections. Armando and Victoria Nahum formed the Safe Care Campaign after three members of their family, including their son, acquired infections during a hospital stay. Unfortunately, the Nahum's son died of his infection and Victoria has an incurable auto-immune disease too.
The purpose of the Safe Care Campaign is to educate and promote hygiene safety as well as precautionary measures in all medical caregivers whether in a hospital setting, nursing home setting or other medical facilities. Not only does the Safe Care Campaign work with the medical institutions, they also work with patients as well so that they know what is safe and what practices to look for as well.
To understand more about what the Safe Care Campaign is working for, you have to understand more about hospital acquired infections. Often these infections are also called nosocomial infections which basically mean that the patient contracts an infection in the hospital when that patient was admitted for another reason entirely. Nosocomial infections also apply to those that incubate while in the hospital but then appear once discharged.
Most nosocomial infections aka HAIs are the result of some type of contact transmission. Direct transmission is body to body contact and could be as simple as a touch of the hand. Indirect contact occurs when contaminated medical instruments like syringes, needles, wound dressings or even gloves touch the susceptible patient. This often occurs when the medical caregiver does not change their gloves or immediately wash their hands before touching the patient.
Infection Control CourseA Brief Overview of RSV and How to Prevent this Disease
It is always the weak who are most vulnerable to infectious diseases as they do not have the strong immune system needed to fight off most infections. The elderly and young children and babies often get many illnesses but one to particularly watch for is RSV or respiratory syncytial virus.
RSV is a respiratory virus that attached both the upper and lower portions of the respiratory tract. The virus can start off small with minor cold or flu symptoms or develop into something more "hospital serious" with bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Infection Control Guidelines
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The most common way that germs are transmitted to the patient while in the hospital is through a breach in the body's defenses. This breach could occur as a simple paper cut on a finger to the eyes, nose, mouth, IV entry site, catheter site, feeding tubes and more. When an infection occurs through one of these sites, it can often be blamed on poor hygiene such as contaminated equipment and lack of hand washing.
These are the problems that the Safe Care Campaign is trying to combat through educating not only the patients entering medical facilities but also the medical community as well. Just as with all infection control measures, the best defense according to the Safe Care Campaign is thorough hand hygiene.
Proper hand hygiene involves washing the hands and wrists with warm water and soap. The soap should be lathered up for at least 30 seconds and thoroughly rinsed off. The hands should be dried via a paper towel or air drier. And if soap and water is not available, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer should be used by applying a dollop in one hand. You should rub the hands together, getting in between fingers, under fingernails and even up to the wrist until the sanitizer is dry. The Safe Care Campaign believes that if everyone who enters a hospital room washes their hands first before approaching the patient, more than half of the nosocomial aka hospital acquired infections could be prevented.
Latest News Regarding Infection Control ?
07/24/2008
CMV infections affect more than just patients with compromised immune systems, researchers find (EurekAlert!)
An infection due to a virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV), which most commonly affects people with compromised immune systems, can also affect hospital intensive-care patients who have no immune-system problems, University of Washington researchers have found.
CMV infections affect more than just patients with compromised immune systems, researchers find (EurekAlert!)
07/24/2008
CMV infections affect more than just patients with compromised immune systems, researchers find (EurekAlert!)
An infection due to a virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV), which most commonly affects people with compromised immune systems, can also affect hospital intensive-care patients who have no immune-system problems, University of Washington researchers have found.
CMV infections affect more than just patients with compromised immune systems, researchers find (EurekAlert!)
07/24/2008
Staph infection kills SoCal high school wrestler (Los Angeles Times)
A high school wrestler died from complications of a drug-resistant staph infection and a teammate was being treated for the illness.
Staph infection kills SoCal high school wrestler (Los Angeles Times)
07/24/2008
High School Wrestler Dies From Staph Infection (FOX 40 Sacramento)
DOWNEY — A high school wrestler died from complications of a drug-resistant staph infection and a teammate was being treated for the illness. Noah Armendariz, 17, died Sunday at Children's Hospital of Orange County from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
High School Wrestler Dies From Staph Infection (FOX 40 Sacramento)
07/24/2008
On National Patient Safety Day, The Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths Calls on the CDC to Make Every Death Count (PR Newswire via Yahoo! News)
On Friday, July 25th grieving families and patient advocates across the nation will hold candlelight vigils and gather for moments of silence in memory of loved ones who died from hospital infections. We share their pain and outrage, says Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former Lt. Governor of New York State. The government agency responsible for ...
On National Patient Safety Day, The Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths Calls on the CDC to Make Every Death Count (PR Newswire via Yahoo! News)
07/24/2008
Staph infection kills SoCal high school wrestler (Los Angeles Times)
A high school wrestler died from complications of a drug-resistant staph infection and a teammate was being treated for the illness.
Staph infection kills SoCal high school wrestler (Los Angeles Times)
07/24/2008
High School Wrestler Dies From Staph Infection (FOX 40 Sacramento)
DOWNEY — A high school wrestler died from complications of a drug-resistant staph infection and a teammate was being treated for the illness. Noah Armendariz, 17, died Sunday at Children's Hospital of Orange County from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
High School Wrestler Dies From Staph Infection (FOX 40 Sacramento)
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