The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Keep hospital environment clean, prevent infections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 30, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Keep hospital environment clean, prevent infections

Special Correspondent

Simple measures will help to keep rate down, says British expert

CHENNAI: Simple measures such as keeping the hospital environment clean, using proper hand washing techniques and not recommending unnecessary antibiotics will go a long way in bringing down hospital acquired infections, Thomas Gray, an expert in childhood diseases with the Birmingham Children's Hospital, U.K., said on Friday.

England and India were facing similar problems in controlling nosocomial or hospital acquired infections, Dr. Gray said. In fact, in England, it is being raked up as a topic of debate in the election campaigns. A major source of concern is the MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staph.Aureus) bacteria and efforts were directed at bringing it down, he added.

Dr. Gray is in Chennai to deliver the 14th M.S. Ramakrishnan Memorial Endowment Oration on "Emerging Infectious Disease in Childhood." The lecture is organised annually in memory of M.S. Ramakrishnan, founder of the Kanchi Kamakoti Childs Trust Hospital (KKCTH).

This theme, along with infection control measures, will be the peg of the CME programme of the hospital, Mathangi Ramakrishnan, patron of the Endowment Oration, said. A unique interactive programme on difficult cases in childhood infectious diseases will be held on April 30 at the Hospital to allow senior paediatricians and microbiologists to interact with students and explain procedures.

A workshop on infection control will be held to exemplify these procedures, S. Balasubramanian, academic co-ordinator, said. This will be followed by the CME at Hotel Savera on May 1, where Dr. Gray will deliver his lecture. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics has been another area of concern responsible for the emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms both in the hospital and the community, Vivek Hittinahalli, organising secretary, said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu