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UFS experts give presentations on hospital-acquired infections at Africa Health

09 November 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo SUPPLIED

It was recently discovered that bacteria are capable of growing inside bottles of disinfectants, hand sanitisers and antiseptics. These cleaning products, which are actively used in South African hospitals, are doing more harm than good by contaminating the environment they are designed to clean. Upon testing, some of these contaminated bottles harbouring harmful microorganisms were still actively in use in hospitals and instead of killing microorganisms, the contaminated cleaning solutions were spreading pathogens throughout the hospital with their use.

This is according to Samantha Mc Carlie from the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS). She, with her promotor, Prof Robert Bragg, were part of a workshop at the Africa Health Exhibition – the biggest gathering of health care professionals in South Africa and Africa. This was held at Gallagher Estate, Midrand, from 17 to 19 October 2023.

Increasing mortalities in health-care setting

In a workshop titled: “Developing and sustaining safe health-care environments”, they were part of the main presenting panel, together with Caroline Bilen from the Compass Health Consultancy in Dubai

Prof Bragg, whose main research is in disease-control, first in the agricultural industry, and now human health, started off the session by highlighting the problems with the increasing mortalities in the health-care setting. He presented data indicating that in the not too distant future, deaths from hospital-acquired infections would be the leading cause of human deaths. “This problem is rapidly growing as most of the pathogens which people contract while in hospital are now resistant to antibiotics, making them very difficult to treat,” he explained.

He used an analogy from San Tzu from the book The Art of War to explain why humankind is losing the war against the microbes. “San Tzu stated that if you know yourself and know your enemy, you will be victorious in every battle. On the other hand, if you do not know yourself or the enemy, you will be defeated in every battle. He pointed out that we do not know the enemy and we do know ourselves (or rather the weapons we have to defeat the enemy) and for this reason we are being defeated,” according to Prof Bragg.

He continued: “We know the names of the different pathogens causing diseases, but do we really understand them? The answer to that must be ‘no’. A typical example is people are using ethanol-based or chlorine-based products to disinfect and then they wonder why there are increasing problems with Clostridioides difficile infections. If we knew the enemy, we would know that this bacterium producers endospores and chlorine and ethanol-based disinfectants do not inactivate bacterial endospores, and so will not kill this bacterium,” said Prof Bragg.

He stated that a major concern for hospitals is that they are currently unaware of whether the disinfectants they are using are effective against the pathogens in their hospital. It is assumed that their cleaning products are working but no testing is being done.

Bacterial resistance to disinfectants

Mc Carlie, in her presentation, highlighted the development of bacterial resistance to disinfectants and why this is important in the health-care setting. She pointed out that the standards for the registration of disinfectant products is based on the use of reference strains of bacteria.

“Bacteria found in hospital environments often exhibit significantly greater resistance to disinfectant compounds compared to the standard strains used for product testing. The presence of these resistant bacteria can result in microbial growth and contamination within containers of disinfectants, hand sanitisers, and antiseptics intended for hospital cleaning purposes. Instead of effectively eliminating microorganisms, these contaminated products inadvertently spread these resilient bacteria throughout the hospital environment, contributing to overall contamination,” said Mc Carlie.

She also discussed the consequences of using incorrectly diluted disinfectant products at concentrations that will not be effective against resilient hospital pathogens.

Prof Bragg finished the session with a discussion on the solutions to the current problem and highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in medicine. “The current paradigm, since the discovery of antibiotics, has been treatment. As we are entering into a post-antibiotic era, this paradigm of treatment needs to change to one of ‘prevention’. The old saying ‘Prevention is better than cure’ has never been more true.”

He concluded by discussing various options which could be used when focus is placed on biosecurity for the prevention of hospital-acquired infection; including the installation of UV lights, monitoring of the laundry process, correct disinfecting of surfaces, using products with proven efficacy against the pathogens isolated from the different health-care setting and finally, the use of antimicrobial bedside privacy curtains.

The workshop ended with a panel discussion on biosecurity and the efforts needed to reduce the ever-increasing numbers of hospital-acquired infections. It is hoped that the message of this workshop will have a significant impact on the reduction of hospital acquired infections.

Click to view document Prof Bragg's presentation.

Click to view document Mc Carlie's presentation.

News Archive

Statement on protest at the UFS

2005-03-04

Following a protest by student and non-student organisations today, the management of the University of the Free State (UFS) would like to place the following facts on record:

1. There is a well-documented process underway to further transform the UFS. At the official opening of the UFS on 4 February 2005 , the Rector and Vice-chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie, announced that the UFS would draft a comprehensive Transformation Plan to guide the next phase of transformation at the institution.

The UFS appeals to student formations, staff associations, trade unions and other role-players to make a constructive input into this Transformation Plan.

The UFS management has been - and always will be - willing to engage with role-players and is prepared to do so even after today’s protest.

2. There is thus no regulation or policy prescription which separates students in hostels according to race.

The reality is that students exercise their freedom of choice as to which hostel they wish to be placed in. This was agreed upon by black and white students in 1997/8.

However, the unintended consequence and practice of this hostel placement policy has been that students themselves have tended to choose to stay in hostels which have over time become black hostels and white hostels.

This is a matter of concern for the management of the UFS as such a situation does not promote interaction across language, cultural and socio-economic groupings of students.

This matter is receiving attention and an intensive consultative process, which will include students, will be launched to review this policy.

The management is convinced that such interaction will enhance the learning experience of all students and sensitise them to the reality of a multicultural South Africa and a multicultural world.

3. No student organisation has been banned from operating at any of the three campuses of the UFS.

In the past few weeks, SASCO, the Young Communist League and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) have held meetings on all three campuses, namely the Qwaqwa campus, the Vista campus and the main campus.

There are also regular interactions between top management and the leadership of SASCO and the ANCYL on campus.

In fact, the UFS upholds the right of students and staff to associate freely and to organise themselves as they see fit.

The UFS also upholds the rights of staff and students to engage in legal and peaceful protests.

The management however remains committed to discussing issues that affect staff and students in a constructive manner and appeals to student organisations in this case to engage with management.

4. The issues of registration, fees, debt and financial aid are continually monitored, and interventions to assist students are made regularly. To assist as far as possible those academically deserving students who face financial difficulties, the UFS management has put in place a structure called the Monitoring committee that includes management and student representatives.

The purpose of the Monitoring Committee is to review the cases of individual students to determine how best they can be assisted.

This applies to the Qwaqwa campus, the Vista campus and the main campus.

It is generally the case that students who perform academically will not have any difficulty in obtaining financial assistance. However, according to the requirements of National Student Financial Scheme, students who perform poorly will have difficulty in obtaining such assistance.

5. With regard to student governance, the process to institute an inclusive Central Student Representative Council (SRC), on which all three campuses will be equitably represented, was launched in July 2004, and a preliminary constitution has just been drafted. At the same time an inclusive process to review certain elements of the constitution of the main campus SRC was initiated at the end of 2004. This process, which includes all relevant student organisations and structures, is planned to produce an outcome within the next couple of months.

6. There is no policy at the UFS that is based on racism or that discriminates on the basis of the race of students and staff.

As part of the building of a new institutional culture within the broader transformation process, the UFS management is determined to eradicate all elements of racism that may occur on its campuses, and has already instituted inclusive forums on campus to discuss the issue of values and principles for a non-racial university.

Issued by: Mr Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
Cell: 072 207 8334
Tel: (051) 401-2749
4 March 2005

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