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UPDATED EVERY FRIDAY
Last Update:
Friday 14th January, 2005
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All content ©
New Journal Enterprises, 2004.
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Dr Peter Wilson |
TACTICS used to stop the spread of the MRSA superbug in intensive
care at two Camden hospitals do not work, according to a major study.
The report by a team of doctors including leading University College
London Hospital (UCLH) microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson showed that
isolating patients did nothing to stop the spread of MRSA.
But Dr Wilson told the New Journal that his study, carried out in
2001 at UCLH and the Royal Free Hospital in Hamp-stead, only applied
to intensive treatment units, where patients are sickest and are
touched most often by doctors.
On other wards, where the greatest risk of MRSA was airborne transmission,
rather than a doctor’s touch, isolation might still be the
best option, he said.
In any case, he insisted, many of the report’s findings –
published this week in The Lancet – had been superseded by
new hygiene measures.
The report found that doctors and nurses washed their hands only
one fifth of the number of times they should in intensive care.
But Dr Wilson said that in order to be fully compliant, doctors
would spend literally half their time cleaning, making many procedures
all but impossible.
Another study at UCLH has shown that ballpoint pens, computer keyboards,
lockers and bins are the most common carriers of the MRSA bug, which
can survive for up to a month if it is not removed with alcohol
or detergent.
Ballpoint pens have now been removed and Dr Wilson is working on
designs for a wipe-clean NHS keyboard.
Other measures, including wider testing of patients for MRSA on
admission, closer scrutiny of surgical wounds and a hospital-wide
clampdown on hand cleaning standards have helped the MRSA rate at
UCLH fall by 70 per cent over the last 18 months.
But the hospital, which scores highly in both government and independent
reviews, still has one of the worst MRSA records overall.
Bosses hope the move to its new home on Euston Road will lead to
further improvements, but Dr Wilson retains his concerns that the
government target of 100 per cent bed occupancy, as opposed to the
85 per cent target that previously existed, makes preventing cross-infection
harder.
He said: “It’s government policy, so there’s not
a lot I can do about it.”
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