Multidrug resistant microbes such as acinetobacker baumannii, MRSA, C. diff, and vancomycin resistant enterococcus are found in 50% of infected patients rooms up to 2 months later! Patients with weakened immunity are especially vulnerable. These microbes are found on places that include supply cart handles, floors, infusion pumps, ventilator touch pads, bed rails, and much more.
There is much that can be done to prevent the 1.9 million hospital acquired infections and about 100,000 deaths from them that is not happening. First we could be using copper on surfaces that harbor these infections to prevent most of them from occurring in the first place. We could consider using UVB lights in rooms where people with serious infections have stayed. We should be using lifestyle strategies to boost immunity and strengthen detoxification. When 5% of hospitalized patients who come in without an infection go out with an infection, we're not doing our job to prevent infections very well.
