C. difficile Outbreaks, Anyone?
Posted by Clark Venable on 3/23/2005
Our hospital has pulled all 3M Avagard hand disinfectant from the operating rooms, preferring instead that surgeons go back to the old fashioned surgical hand scrub. At the same time, we are apparently seeing more nosocomial Clostridium difficile infections. C. diff. is not a reportable pathogen, and this was felt to contribute to the outbreak Canada experienced recently. Avagard does not inactivate C. diff. spores. Co-incidence? I don't think so.
The CDC page for healthcare providers on C. diff. provides an interesting nugget:
"If your institution experiences an outbreak, consider using only soap and water for hand hygiene when caring for patients with Clostridium difficile-associated disease; alcohol-based hand rubs may not be as effective against spore-forming bacteria."
Has anyone else seen this at their facilities?
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