This article is from the WeChat public account: I am a scientist iScientist (ID: IamaScientist) , author: meow slave · Cathy, river fish, from the title figure: Orient IC
When the whole country is working together to fight the new coronavirus pneumonia, there are still some discordant notes that disturb everyone’s emotions: Recently, some patients intentionally cough and spit to medical staff, and family members of patients are having Violent torn doctors’ protective clothing in a virus-contaminated hospital.
The public security department has dealt with the offenders, and also issued a notice to crack down on medical-related crimes and maintain medical order in accordance with the law during the epidemic. But while punishing offenders, we also need to think about a serious problem behind this kind of behavior-“nosocomial infection.”
What is “nosocomial infection”?
“Nosocomial infection” is the full name of “in-hospital infection”, which refers to infections acquired by hospitalized patients in the hospital, including infections during hospitalization and infections after discharge from the hospital, but excluding infections before admission. Pre-existing infections at the time of admission or admission, and infections acquired by hospital staff in the hospital are also nosocomial infections. [1] The transmission routes of nosocomial infections are mainly divided into: contact transmission, air transmission (mainly droplets) , digestive tract transmission, and blood transmission. Among them, contact transmission is also divided into direct contact and indirect contact. Direct contact means being infected after being in direct contact with an infected person, and indirect contact being infected after being in contact with a contaminated article. For example: the infected person sneezed at the elevator button, and then we pressed the elevator button with a bare hand, and this hand was not washed, rubbing the eyes, it may cause infection.
Indirect contact may also lead to infection | Tuworm Creative
Nosocomial infections do not occur only when there is an epidemic in a certain area. Even in the absence of an epidemic, nosocomial infections often occur. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a one-day survey of 183 U.S. emergency hospitals in 2011, 4% of inpatients developed one or more nosocomial infections, of which 21.8% were pneumonia. [2] The most common mode of transmission of lung infections is droplet transmission. As the hospital is a densely populated public place, and most of the staff are patients with reduced immunity, the consequences of an outbreak in the hospital would be unimaginable.
Prevention of “a sense of hospitality”
In the past, people’s understanding of infectious diseases was not clear. The way to stop the spread of infectious diseases in treatment centers is isolation. The more typical and extreme example is the “leprosy village”-when leprosy raged in the last century, some countries concentrated leprosy patients in a sparsely populated area for treatment and management. Such a native method is inhumane, but the isolation of “concentrated treatment of patients and the isolation of healthy people from the patient until the patient is cured” has almost blocked all transmission routes of infectious diseases and is the most effective way to prevent the spread of infectious diseases method.
This method is still being used by hospital systems (but the conditions are much better) . The “isolation ward” and “negative pressure ward” we often hear about recently are to isolate patients in a scientific and humane way. The air pressure in the negative pressure ward is lower than the air pressure outside the ward, which can prevent the contaminated air in the ward from leaking directly. The fresh air outside can enter the ward, and the polluted air is discharged through a special channel after treatment.
In addition to isolation, there are many ways to stop the sense of hospitality, such as the “Doctor of the Beak” shown below. According to legend, this is the original protection method invented by doctors during the black medieval epidemic in Europe to prevent doctors from being infected during the examination process.ss = “text-remarks” label = “Remarks”> (Although there is no way to verify its validity) .
Dr. Schnabel von Rom (German: Doktor Schnabel von Rom, meaning “Roman’s Beak Doctor”), Paul Foster (Paul Fürst) 1656 | Wikimedia Commons
To date, there are many effective ways to prevent “a sense of hospital” in medicine. For example, masks that have recently topped the shopping list can effectively prevent droplets from entering the body through the respiratory tract, thereby greatly reducing the chance of infection. In the hospital, a full set of protective equipment worn by medical staff can block the medical staff from contacting the patient with droplets, etc., and prevent medical staff from being infected.
In the ward next to the hospital in Wuhan, doctors are “fully armed” | surging number
In addition to all kinds of equipment and equipment, there are many other ways to prevent the “sense of the hospital”, all of which are the result of wisdom accumulated from a lot of past experience and cases. In the past, it was generally believed that infections were caused by the human body’s own microorganisms, and it was not known that airborne dust was full of pathogenic microorganisms. In the past, the operating room was not even a closed environment. Some well-known large surgeons often carried out “surgery performances” in public. [3]In theaters, patients who had undergone open surgery basically died of infection and could not survive.
The “Surgery Performance” at that time | “History of Absurd Medicine”
Until Liszt found that the dust in the air would become a vector for the transmission of pathogens, and by spraying carbonic acid solution throughout the operating room, surgical instruments and other disinfection, the probability of infection was greatly reduced, and surgical disinfection was pioneered. Since then, various surgical sterilization methods have emerged as the times require, and modern system surgical sterilization methods have gradually formed. The most basic hand-washing procedure of surgical participants-“surgical hand disinfection method”. In order to achieve the effect of removing potentially pathogenic microorganisms on the hands, the steps are complex and rigorous. The “seven-step hand-washing method” is not comparable. span class = “text-remarks” label = “Remarks”> (Yes, the seven-step handwashing method that broke the circle of friends in these days is just the entry-level for medical handwashing) .
I think the seven-step washing method is already complicated? Let’s take a look at surgical hand washing methods | Map of the World
There is also a disinfection and sterilization system in the hospital. The appropriate methods are used to disinfect other necessary places such as the ward. , UV light irradiation, etc.) , Sterilize reusable items