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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.

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New SRC: Records of support and a victory for women

2014-09-04

Ms Mosa Leteane and Ms Louzanne Coetzee
Photo: Johan Roux

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While campuses across South Africa regularly report falling voter turnout in campus elections of student representatives, the University of the Free State, in its recently completed SRC elections, registered record levels of support across our campuses with a total voter turnout of 44%. At the Bloemfontein Campus 34,4% of students voted (5052 votes) and 53,3% (1583 votes) at the Qwaqwa Campus.

Also, for the first time under the new SRC constitution, students elected a woman to lead the student body – Ms Mosa Leteane was elected as President. Another first was the election of a blind woman to the SRC – Ms Louzanne Coetzee. She will be responsible for student accessibility of our Bloemfontein SRC. This marks a victory for women in student governance.

Mr Tulasizwe Sithole was elected as the President of the SRC at our Qwaqwa Campus.

The election of Ms Leteane as President underscores the progress achieved for gender equality with near half of her SRC consisting of women (48%).

These successes are all the more significant, since this is the 4th year of elections under newly adopted SRC constitutions that allow for broader participation of diverse student constituencies in student governance.

This means that the crucial 3-year mark to test a new approach and method in governance and elections was not only successfully reached, but also in its 4th year shows the constitution as one that sustains its impact to deepen democracy and citizenship among our 30,000-strong student body.

“The results of the SRC elections across campuses show that our students are not only ready to lead our campus communities on issues relating to justice, freedom and democracy beyond our societal legacies of race and gender, but do so also for the student movement nationally. We’re immensely proud of our students, who show courage and resilience to choose leaders not for expediency, but for significance, and to lead not for some, but for all”, the Dean of Student Affairs, Rudi Buys, said.

The Qwaqwa SRC was installed on 2 September 2014, while the Bloemfontein SRC will be installed on 5 September. The Central SRC will be established on 14 September by joint sitting of the two SRCs.

The SRC members 2014/15 at the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses are as follows:

Bloemfontein Elective portfolios:
President: Ms Mosa Leteane
Vice Pres: Mr Waldo Staude
Secretary: Ms Dineo Motaung
Treasurer: Ms Maphenye Maditsi
Arts & Culture: Mr Stefan van der Westhuizen
Accessibility & Student Support: Ms Louzanne Coetzee
First Generation Students: Ms Mpho Khati
Media, Marketing & Liaison: Ms Lethabo Maebana
Legal & Constitutional Affairs: Mr Lindokuhle Ntuli
Sport: Ms Dominique de Gouveia
Student development & Environmental Affairs: Mr Victor Ngubeni
Transformation: Mr Tumelo Rapitsi

Bloemfontein Ex officio Portfolios
Dialogue & Ex officio: Associations Student Council: Mr Piet Thibane
Academic Affairs & Ex officio: Academic Affairs Student Council: Mr Jonathan Ruwanika
Residence Affairs & Ex officio: Campus Residences Student Council: Ms Melissa Taljaard
City student Affairs & Ex officio: Commuter Student Council: Ms Kerry-Beth Berry
Post graduate Affairs & Ex officio: Post Graduate Student Council: Ms Masabata Mokgesi
International Affairs & Ex officio: International Student Council: Mr Makate Maieane
Student Media Affairs & Ex officio: Student Media Council: Mr Samuel Phuti
RAG Community Service & Ex officio: RAG Fundraising Council: Mr Johan du Plessis
RAG Community Service & Ex officio: RAG Community Service Council: Mr Manfred Titus

Qwaqwa Elective portfolios:
President General: Mr Thulasizwe Sithole
Deputy President: Ms Zethu Mhlongo
Secretary General: Mr Vukani Ntuli
Treasurer General: Mr Langelihle Mbense
Media & Publicity: Ms Nongcebo Qwabe
Politics & Transformation: Ms Nkosiphile Zwane

Qwaqwa Ex officio Portfolios
Student Development & Environmental Affairs: Mr Ndumiso Memela
Academic Affairs: Mr Simon Mofekeng
Arts & Cultural Affairs: Ms Samkelo Mtshali
Off-Campus Students: Mr Khanyisani Mbatha
RAG, Community Service & Dialogue: Mr Njabulo Mabaso
Religious Affairs: Mr Mfundo Nxumalo
Residence & Catering Affairs: Ms Ntombifuthi Radebe
Sports Council: Mr Luvuno

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