MRSA: CAN THE NHS LEARN FROM THE FOOD HYGIENE INDUSTRY?

Link: Response Source

A leading food scientist who has helped combat food poisoning bugs in the UK’s food industry has stated that the NHS may be missing a trick in fighting the spread of hospital superbugs such as MRSA. Malcolm Kane who has 25 years’ experience in controlling food related infection says that the NHS should now think seriously about building and equipping hospitals with the same built-in antimicrobial materials that are increasingly commonplace in food production.

Malcolm Kane stated: “Currently most of the commentary is centred on better physical hospital cleaning. But physical cleaning alone may not produce the desired results. In the food industry we focused for years on better physical cleaning protocols and made steady progress – but there were still shortfalls. We achieved the best results when we also installed new hygiene technology including products containing the latest built-in antimicrobial technology.”

“We have clear proof in the food industry that harmful bacteria like Listeria, Staphylococcus Aureus and Salmonella can be controlled between cleaning sessions when surfaces are appropriately protected. For example, we have shown that an untreated working surface will typically harbour 100% more bacteria per sq cm just one hour after cleaning than an antimicrobial surface will.”