A Thin Layer of Faeces on Everything You Touch

Abstract

Hospitals are more and more interconnected. Due to the constant specialisation of hospitals, patients often need to travel further for specific diagnosis or treatment. Once the operation or treatment is done, they go back to their own regional hospital. This increasing movement of patients heightens the risk of spreading of multiresistant microbes. To tackle this problem regionalisation of infection prevention, and close collaboration between medical institutions seems the way forward. The other key question treated in this chapter is the role of guidelines and protocols. Although nobody questions their importance and usefulness, they do create in some circumstances such complicated situations, that their rigidity raises questions. Some of the very resistant microorganisms have a rather low pathogenic character. But since they are classified as ‘very resistant’ the guidelines and protocols demand strict and expensive infection prevention measures. The question here is whether the costs of these measures do not outweigh their benefits. Finally, this is closely linked to the question of (mandatory) warning and reporting systems for outbreaks.