Infection Control

Interest in monitoring hand hygiene compliance using automated technology has “increased substantially” in recent years, according to researchers, who found that not all electronic hand hygiene monitoring systems are created equal.

A novel hospital cleaning bundle that has been shown to improve cleaning thoroughness and reduce vancomycin-resistant enterococci infections by 37% is also cost-effective, according to newly published study results.

Hospital-acquired Clostridioides difficile infection, or HA-CDI, was associated with a 27% increase in attributable costs and 13% increase in hospital length of stay compared with controls in a Canadian study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

BOSTON — Didier Pittet, MD, professor and director of the infection control program at the University of Geneva Hospitals and WHO, recaps his featured discussion on hand hygiene here at ASM Microbe 2016. Pittet said that WHO’s campaign promoting alcohol-based hand rub over washing has been largely successful, and has prevented approximately half of all sanitation-related illnesses and death worldwide.