[Reconciling Sustainability and Hygiene in the Healthcare Sector].

In the course of climate change, doctors will not only be confronted with heat-related consequences, but also with the emergence of infectious diseases caused by previously tropical pathogens in temperate climate zones.Fortunately, the topics of sustainability and climate change are also becoming increasingly important in discussions in the healthcare sector, which accounts for 4.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

[Diagnostic Stewardship - The right test for the right patient with the right consequences].

In 2023, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Task Force issued a practice recommendation on the integration of diagnostic stewardship into antibiotic stewardship (ABS) programs, which focuses on optimizing sample collection, processing, and reporting to ensure a correct test result on the one hand, and on the justifying indication to perform diagnostics on the other.Unnecessary microbiological or serological tests produce results that can then lead to unnecessary further tests for clarification or unnecessary antibiotic administration. A classic example is "routine" urine cultures before non-urological, surgical interventions, which often lead to the treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria.

[Prioritized utilisation and reprocessing of reusable equipment in anaesthesiology deparmtents : Recommendations on how to reduce CO emissions from anaesthetic equipment].

Currently, few robust data are available to provide estimates of the environmental footprint and in particular the CO emissions of medical devices; however, existing life cycle assessments largely indicate that reusable materials have more favorable emissions and environmental footprints compared to disposable items. Thus, the challenge for every anesthesiology department is to identify items that can be used as reusable products for ecological and other reasons.A prerequisite for the use of reusable items is hygienically correct reprocessing and packaging.

History-based preoperative evaluation of antibiotic-related allergies and design of an easy to use questionnaire.

Background: An unconfirmed history of antibiotic allergies may negatively influence prescribing patterns for preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis and increase rates of postoperative wound infections through unnecessary use of alternative antibiotics.

Methods: After a literature search, we developed a questionnaire for the structured collection of antibiotic allergy history in the anesthesia consultation center and tested it over 2 years at a tertiary care hospital under everyday conditions as part of a quality assurance project. All data were evaluated completely anonymously in the context of standard care.

[Experiences and Resilience of Hygiene Team Members During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic].

Background: In compliance with German data protections regulations, we conducted an anonymous survey among participants of the annual infectious disease and control meeting in Freiburg, Germany in October 2021.

Material And Methods: We report the results of nurse and physician members of infection control teams on their perceptions and emotions during the pandemic. Descriptive statistics and Chi Square Test with P<0.

[Infection Prevention in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)].

Secondary to the underlying disease, the need for invasive devices and frequent drug-induced changes in immunocompetence and microbiota, critically ill patients have a high risk of suffering nosocomial infections. According to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) this affects 8,4% of patients treated in an ICU for more than 48 hours. Key points of infection prevention are maintenance of the patients' microbiota and sometimes individually chosen interventions to its restoration or focused manipulation; development and implementation of care bundles for frequently used medical devices and invasive treatments (esp.

The role of the faucet's aerator kit for contamination of drinking water.

Experimentally we demonstrated the possibility of retrograde contamination of aerator kits, independent of special design, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In a real life setting contamination of aerator kits with typical environmental and water organisms occurred, whether they were changed after 6 or 12 weeks, so we recommend a risk adjusted rather than schedule-based changing regimen in hospitals, eg, if potential retrograde contamination might be a relevant factor in rooms occupied by patients with multiresistant gram-negative organisms.

[Infection Prevention in Anesthesiology during the SARS-CoV 2-pandemic].

It is necessary to discuss the sometimes competing goals of sufficient critical care capacity, maintenance of regular patient care, protection of medical staff, interruption of infectious chains within the general public and individual aspects of patient care in anesthesia and the operating room in times of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, given the uncertainty of many data on which decisions need to be based. Basic hygiene remains the cornerstone of infection prevention especially when resources are sparse and SARS-CoV-2 specific additional measures need to be taken according to a risk analysis taking the dynamic of the pandemic as well as local factors into account.

[Nosocomial pneumonia].

Nosocomial pneumonia is one of the leading entities of nosocomial infections in Germany and worldwide with invasive ventilation being one of the major risk factors. However nosocomial pneumonia without ventilator support is an underappreciated complication as demonstrated by prevalence studies of the European Centre for Disease Control in 2011 and 2016. Major general risk factors include old age, multi-morbidity, preexisting pulmonary disease, immunosuppression and abdominal or thoracic surgery.

[Penicillin Allergy - Deadly "Fake News" in the Medical Record?].

The note "penicillin allergy" in the medical record is given in the literature with a prevalence of 8 - 12% and represents the most frequently reported "allergy". However, there are a number of hypersensitivity reactions of which true anaphylaxis is only a small part. Therefore, a specific allergy history should be included in the file for patients with suspected penicillin allergy.

Discrimination of Human Pathogen Clostridium Species Especially of the Heterogeneous C. sporogenes and C. botulinum by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry.

Clostridium species cause several local and systemic diseases. Conventional identification of these microorganisms is in part laborious, not always reliable, time consuming or does not always distinguish different species, i.e.

[Glove Disinfection: Knowledge, Experiences and Attitudes of Hygiene Team Members and Company Physicians].

Background: Chemical-resistant single-use gloves allow the practice of glove disinfection. However, there are different recommendations for their use.

Material And Methods: We conducted a standardized survey during an infection control meeting and an occupational health symposium in order to gain data on knowledge, experiences and attitudes of hygiene team members and occupational health physicians in hospitals with regard to glove disinfection by group comparison.