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06 January 2005

INFECTION CONTROL IS THE THEME OF THE DAY

It was fungi before lunch and maggots after at the recent Oxoid Infection Control Seminar where a full day’s programme included lectures on these two topics! The seminar, which was accredited with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points by the Institute of Biomedical Scientists, the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Nursing, drew an audience of nearly 200 infection control and microbiology professionals from all over the UK. The seminar was held prior to an evening awards ceremony where winners of the Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards received their prizes.

Chaired by Professor Gary French, Professor Mark Wilcox and Christine Perry, the pre-lunch seminar session concentrated on “Resistant Organisms”. Dr Alan Johnson, of the Health Protection Agency’s Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, gave an overview of the resistant organisms encountered in hospitals. He described the importance of both the mandatory and voluntary reporting undertaken by laboratories at national, local and international levels in the fight to limit antibiotic resistance. Dr Adam Fraise, Consultant Microbiologist, City Hospital Trust, Birmingham then spoke about Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) giving an overview of the first outbreak and the spread (particularly within renal and transplant units) of VRE. He went on to speak about the emergence of Glycopeptide Intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (GISA, previously known as Vancomycin Intermediate Staphylococcus aureus) and Vancomycin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Dr Chris Kibbler, Consultant Medical Microbiologist at the Royal Free Hospital, London led the morning session to a close with a report on the incidence of azole resistant fungi.

After lunch, Dr Steve Thomas, Director of the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory at the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend spoke about the production and use of sterile maggots in the treatment of infected and necrotic wounds. Tracey Cooper described her role as Consultant Nurse Infection Control at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust and highlighted how this nursing specialisation has grown in importance as hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic-resistant organisms have become more prevalent. Decontamination was the theme of the talk given by Craig Mackintosh, Principal Clinical Scientist, Medical Microbiology and Infection Control at Wirral Hospitals NHS Trust. Craig spoke about the importance of establishing the risk factor in any decontamination programme and how such a programme is bound to fail if it is concerned only with visibly-clean hospitals. Martin Kiernan, Nurse Consultant in Prevention and Control of Infection at Southport & Ormskirk NHS Trust brought the seminar to a close and left delegates in tears of laughter with his light-hearted look at cross-infection.

The highly successful day was followed by a grand dinner and presentation of the Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards. In first place, receiving a cheque for £5,000, were the team from Northern Lincolnshire & Goole Hospitals NHS Trust, 2nd prize of £1,000 went to University Hospital , Lewisham ( London ), Rotherham General NHS Trust was awarded the 3rd prize of £500 and additional Highly Commended Awards were given to West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust and to the Clinical Center of Serbia.

To enter the Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards (which close on 28 February 2005), or to request a place at this summer’s Oxoid Infection Control Seminar, please contact Val Kane, Awards Co-ordinator, Oxoid Ltd, tel: +44 (0) 1256 841144, fax: +44 (0) 1256 329728 or email: awards@oxoid.com.