Dr. Karim Ali is the Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases. This column appeared in the St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review and Welland Tribune.
Dr. Karim Ali, Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, says the COVID-19 pandemic provided opportunities to change the way we think about IPAC.
Stroll through the toy section of any dollar or department store and you’re likely to see them: wiggly, jiggly, sensory-type toys with soft spikes, tentacles and offshoots. Whether they’re on your shopping list or not, it’s almost impossible to walk by and not touch them.
As an expert in infection prevention and control (IPAC), it’s a little easier not to. Many of the toys resemble just some of the nearly 100 common infectious diseases that can only be seen under the microscope and, chances are, the toys carry a plethora of potentially dangerous bacteria that can make you sick if you don’t practise proper hand hygiene directly afterwards.
Germs are everywhere — but their presence doesn’t mean we can’t fight back.
National IPAC Week, which is recognized Oct. 14 to 18, provides an opportunity to think about the ways we can all play a role in preventing and controlling infections. As we navigate a post-COVID-19 pandemic world, it’s important to think about the way the virus has had a negative impact on people’s lives, the lives lost and those we continue to lose.
The pandemic caused a fundamental shift in the way society thinks about IPAC — and for the better. During the pandemic, every aspect of our lives was affected and tested. Health care systems across the globe were overwhelmed, often beyond capacity, and on the brink.
But it also provided us with an important opportunity to hone in on the principles of IPAC and how they can help society stay healthy, pandemic or not.
Niagara Health’s IPAC team strives to provide a quality, safe patient environment. This year, our team is reinforcing the guiding principles behind IPAC to keep patients and their loved ones, as well as our staff and physicians, safe. However, many of these same principles can — and should — be applied in everyone’s daily lives.
And, frankly, what better time to be reminded than ahead of respiratory illness season?
Hand hygiene is the cornerstone of IPAC practices. Properly washing your hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer for at least 15 seconds or more is one of the easiest and most effective ways we can prevent and control infectious diseases.
Staying up to date with vaccinations provides us, as well as the people we love, with protection from getting seriously ill from infectious diseases.
Staying home when we’re sick, and avoiding contact with other people who are sick, can help stop the spread.
High-touch surfaces, such as cellphones, faucets, door handles, light switches and toilets, are often breeding grounds for bacteria. Fun fact (at least for an IPAC expert): cellphones — which the average person touches more than 2,000 times a day — are approximately 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat, with more than 17,00 bacterial gene copies. Properly cleaning and disinfecting these surfaces can also help us prevent and control infections.
The average person touches their face approximately 23 times every waking hour. Door handles and elevator buttons will take you to Germ Central regardless of where your final destination is. The flu virus can live up to 48 hours on hard surfaces, and some bacteria can live as long as a week.
All that to say — and coupled with the fact that there are so many different infectious diseases — it can be hard to avoid getting sick. Niagara Health is committed to ongoing vigilance with the highest standards of IPAC, which means being proactive, analyzing data on infectious disease outbreaks in other areas and working with our counterparts.
- We’re committed to reducing the amount of health care-acquired infections by:
- Properly washing our hands;
- Ensuring personal protective equipment (PPE) is worn correctly by front-line health-care workers when needed, such as gowns, gloves and masks that cover the nose and mouth;
- Screening ourselves and our patients;
- Disinfecting shared equipment;
- Collaborating with our teams to provide education to new staff, patients and visitors.
Not all germs are bad germs. In fact, some are even helpful. But when it comes to infectious diseases, it’s best to prevent with intent.
To learn more about IPAC at Niagara Heath, please visit niagarahealth.on.ca/site/infection-prevention-control
