Publications by authors named "Claire Hayward"

Article Synopsis
  • - The relationship between climate change, pollution, and the aerobiome (the air's microbiome) is intricate and significantly affects both human and ecosystem health.
  • - This review combines studies and insights from different fields to analyze how climate change and pollution interact with the aerobiome and their potential health impacts.
  • - The authors highlight that climate change influences air pollution, which in turn affects the aerobiome, and stress the need for a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to understand these complex interactions for the sake of planetary health.
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Article Synopsis
  • Hospital handwashing basins are identified as a source of healthcare-associated infections due to biofilms that can harbor harmful microbes and promote antibiotic resistance.
  • The study aimed to analyze the diversity of microbial communities in biofilms from faucets and drains in hospital versus residential handbasins using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
  • Results showed diverse and potentially pathogenic microbes, highlighting significant differences in biofilm communities between hospitals and residences, but not between faucet and drain locations within hospitals, indicating a need for further research on infection control strategies.
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Purpose Of Review: Drinking water is considered one of the most overlooked and underestimated sources of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Recently, the prevention and control of opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens (OPPPs) in healthcare water systems has been receiving increasing attention in infection control guidelines. However, these fail to address colonization of pathogens that do not originate from source water.

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Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are one of the most common patient complications, affecting 7% of patients in developed countries each year. The rise of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria has been identified as one of the biggest global health challenges, resulting in an estimated 23,000 deaths in the US annually. Environmental reservoirs for AMR bacteria such as bed rails, light switches and doorknobs have been identified in the past and addressed with infection prevention guidelines.

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Contemporary critique of the philosophy and theory of occupational therapy has asserted that the mainstream of the profession holds a westernized view of the world and that occupational therapy has been shackled to notions of health/illness and the medical establishment for too long, hampering movement into social and political spheres. Strategies and developments have been proposed to combat these biases, which have included increased cultural relativism and a re-focus on the subjective experience of occupation. The value placed on "being" in occupational therapy philosophy is described alongside the related terms of occupational integrity and spirituality.

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