gogga posts stuff

Firstly, I thought I am the only one who writes things On things. No, of course not! I know there are 6 billion people, don’t worry, I just think that, well, no, I don’t think :) I even have a category called “On…”.

Anyway, Indibay.org publishes an article “On Washing Hands: Surgeon’s Notes on How Infections Spread in the Hospital“. What caught my eye at first was the On part, but then I read it. Yes, that’s so true… At least I think it is, that most infections originate from doctor’s and nurse’s hands.

Each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, two million Americans acquire an infection while they are in the hospital. Ninety thousand die of that infection. The hardest part of the infection-control team’s job, Yokoe says, is not coping with the variety of contagions they encounter or the panic that sometimes occurs among patients and staff. Instead, their greatest difficulty is getting clinicians like me to do the one thing that consistently halts the spread of infections: wash our hands.

Bigger version of this article, the original is available from Counterpunch.com, by the way:
http://counterpunch.com/gawande03242007.html

I, too, as many students before and after me had to go through the training on how to use sterile surgical gloves. Those things are crazy! Double-packed and folded with special materials just to keep them completely sterile throughout the surgeon putting them on. Took me a while just to go through the practice of opening the container to get it to the point where the trainer agreed with me. Then, of course, I scratched my ass. No, just kidding, but I do remember doing something that she told “whoops, you’re no longer sterile”. With gloves, at least, you know or remember that you have to remain sterile, but when you’re walking around the hospital all day, touching things… You’re not sterile in 5 seconds and you’re covered in MRSA and other potentially deadly stuff in minutes. Just imagine how clean and how often docs and nurses have to wash their hands…

And still, 2,000,000 infection-related problem cases per year…Â need to wash better.