Book - Apollo Correspondence Classes

80 Pages·2013·1.3 MB·English

by  Brice Fialcowitz

Hand Washing Uncovered

By

Simon Black

Apollo Correspondence Classes

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 1
Original work copyright 2013 by Simon Black
All rights reserved

http://mansfieldfc.com/massage/
[email protected]
866-506-1999
21162 Banff Lane
Huntington Beach, CA 92646

To improve the reader experience, this edition is
published without footnotes. For other editions,
contact [email protected]

The material in this book should not be construed as
medical advice. Properly qualified professionals
should be consulted for the medical ramifications of
any particular fact pattern.

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 2
Table of Contents

What This Book is About 5
Chapter 1
Review of the Scientific Data Regarding Hand
Hygiene 7
Historical Perspective 7
Chapter 2
Normal Bacterial Skin Flora 11
Chapter 3
Transmission of Pathogens on Hands 15
Chapter 4
Definition of Terms 19
Chapter 5
Methods Used to Evaluate the Efficacy of
Hand-Hygiene Products 21
Chapter 6
How Hand Washing Products Are Tested 23
Chapter 7
Preparations Used for Hand Hygiene 30
Plain (Non-Antimicrobial) Soap 30
Antimicrobial and Antibacterial Soap 31
Alcohols 31
Chlorhexidine 39
Chloroxylenol (PCMX) 42
Hexachlorophene 43
Iodine and Iodophors 44
Quaternary Ammonium Compounds 47
Triclosan 50
Activity of Antiseptic Agents Against Spore-

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 3
Forming Bacteria 56
Reduced Susceptibility of Bacteria to
Antiseptics 56
Chapter 8
Irritant Contact Dermatitis Resulting from
Hand-Hygiene Measures 58
Other Factors to Consider When Selecting
Hand-Hygiene Products 62
Chapter 9
Efficacy of Promotion and Impact of Improved
Hand Hygiene 68
Chapter 10
Recommendations 73

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 4
What This Book is About

This book points out that the “hands of massage
therapists may become persistently colonized with
pathogenic flora” (bacteria).

This happens from even touching a client’s hand or
shoulder.

For a short look at how many bacteria are on hands,
watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xuEowtB7qg.

Or for the bacteria on your cell phone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmwbBzClAc

photo

Isn’t that amazing?

(These videos can also be accessed from this book’s
description on our web site. They are informative but

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 5
watching them is not required to complete this
course.)
Other bacterial conventions are being held in purses.
Purses are a catchall for bacteria laden items such as
foods, cell phone, keys etc. Plus they are often
placed on bathroom floors and on the ground. Men’s
wallets are full of germs too as currency has a high
bacteria count. Credit cards are a little cleaner than
money but not by much.

This book will talk a lot about contagious germs so
let me offer you some comfort now. This books it not
meant to frighten you. It is designed to empower
you to make informed decisions about how best to
implement hygiene in your practice.

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 6
Chapter 1

Review of the Scientific Data
Regarding Hand Hygiene

Historical Perspective

For generations, hand washing with soap and water
has been considered a measure of personal hygiene.

The concept of cleansing hands with an antiseptic
agent probably emerged in the early 19th century.

As early as 1822, a French pharmacist demonstrated
that solutions containing chlorides of lime or soda
could eradicate the foul odors associated with human
corpses and that such solutions could be used as
disinfectants and antiseptics. In a paper published in
1825, that pharmacist stated that physicians and
other persons would benefit from moistening their
hands with a liquid chloride solution when attending
patients with contagious diseases.

Awakening: Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis

Twenty-one years later, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis made
an observation while working at the General Hospital
of Vienna which had two separate birthing clinics.
One of the birthing clinics was attended by students

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 7
and physicians and the other clinic attended by
midwives.

Dr. Semmelweis observed that the death rate among
women whose babies were delivered by students and
physicians was consistently higher than those whose
babies were delivered by midwives.

He also noted that physicians who went directly
from the autopsy suite to the obstetrics ward had a
disagreeable odor on their hands despite having
washed their hands with soap and water.

He postulated that the puerperal fever that affected
so many women was caused by “cadaverous
particles” transmitted from the autopsy suite to the
obstetrics ward via the hands of students and
physicians. As autopsying grew, the death rate for
woman birthing in hospitals was as high as 25
percent. Doctors and students were transferring
germs from corpses and diseased patients to women
during the delivery of their babies.

Saving Lives through Hand Hygiene

Dr. Semmelweis insisted that students and
physicians clean their hands with a chlorine solution
between each patient in the clinic.

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 8
The maternal mortality rate in the First Clinic
subsequently dropped dramatically and remained low
for years.

This intervention by Dr. Semmelweis represents the
first evidence that cleansing heavily contaminated
hands with an antiseptic agent between patient
contacts may reduce health-care–associated
transmission of contagious diseases more effectively
than hand washing with plain soap and water.

In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes (father of the
Supreme Court justice) concluded independently
that: puerperal fever was spread by the hands of
health personnel. Although he described measures
that could be taken to limit its spread, his
recommendations had little impact on obstetric
practices at the time.

However, as a result of the seminal studies by
Semmelweis and Holmes, antiseptic hand washing
gradually became accepted as one of the most
important measures for preventing transmission of
pathogens in health-care facilities.

What we learned

In the early 1800s a French pharmacist published a
paper encouraging doctors and other staff to wash
their hands in a chloride solution before tending
patients.

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 9
Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis said doctors were spreading
disease to women in labor because they were going
from the autopsy room directly into the labor room
and delivering babies.

Dr. Semmelweis saved lives by requiring doctors to
wash their hands with an antiseptic agent.

Incredibly, it would be almost 150 years before Dr.
Semmelweis’ concept would be recommended to the
medical community as standard practice.

Apollo Correspondence Classes
http:apollo123.com, email: [email protected] Page 10