How to Prevent the Spread of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms

Penicillin was the world's first antibiotic and saved uncounted lives after its discovery. Unfortunately, many disease organisms mutated and developed resistance to it, so researchers uncovered other drugs to fight these strains. In time even these failed to stop further mutant germs. Multidrug-resistant strains of organisms are now able to dodge most of the drugs available, even the remaining few broad-spectrum antibiotics. Researchers can't keep ahead of these new "superbugs," so other preventive measures are being taken to halt their spread. They require no new miracles drugs, merely vigilance, isolation and good hygiene.

Things You'll Need

• Nasal swab kits
• Testing laboratory
• Hand washing supplies
• Contact prevention clothing

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Instructions

• 1

  Screen everyone who walks in the door for various strains of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) before starting treatment. Require a nasal swab and send it to the laboratory for culturing and analysis. Monitor patients for the development of any symptoms of an MDRO infection while they're under your care. Test them for MDRO before they are transferred to another facility and again before they are released to go home. These measures disrupt the spread of MDROs such as MRSA and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

• 2

  Isolate a person who tests positive for a MDRO infection. Insist on contact prevention measures until the patient tests negative for infection. Contact prevention measures include requiring staff and visitors to wear disposable face masks, gloves and gowns while near the patient. These should be removed immediately and disposed off when you leave the area. Identify the patient as being infectious if he tests positive before being released. This alerts medical personnel to his status if he needs to come back for follow-up care.

• 3

  Observe hand-washing protocols in health care settings. Require all personnel to wash their hands before coming in contact with a MDRO-infected patient and afterward. This attention to hygiene is one of the keys in disrupting the life cycle of multidrug-resistant strains such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

• 4

  Allow health care personnel in each care unit to decide how preventive measures will be carried out and enforced. These people are intimately familiar with what works best in their own work environments.

• 5

  Don't prescribe and dispense antibiotics unless they are really required. Refuse to prescribe antibiotics for patients with viral infections who demand the drugs. Antibiotics do not combat viruses. Inappropriate application of antibiotics is a major factor in the development of MDROs.