Egypt to tackle MRSA in children’s units

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US experts are going to help Egytian healthcare staff in neonatal and paediatric units reduce the risk of patients contracting healthcare acquired infections.

Medical experts from the US have been called in by the Egyptian government to help battle the spread of healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) that have become a serious problem in the country's neonatal and paediatric units, Medical Times can reveal.

Numbers of newborns and children contracting diseases such as methicillin-resistant Staphlococus Aureus (MRSA), which can be life threatening, are a "major problem" in the country, according to paediatric experts.

Although figures on infection rates are not routinely gathered in the country the Ministry of Health believes the situation of HAIs has got out of hand.

Ministers met with a delegation from the American Academy of Paediatricians (AAP) in November to discuss how it could work with local hospitals to cut infection rates.

The collaboration is due to start this month, according to APP president John Forbes. "They are coming into hospital and are contracting hospital acquired infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

It is the neonatal intensive care units and the paediatric intensive care units - those are the two environments that it is in, and the emergency room," Forbes added.

"This increases morbidity and has added costs of antibiotic and caring from the families. We are going to train the medical staff as that is our expertise," he told MT.

HAIs are being spread between children because of a lack of infection control policies, such as hand washing and cleaning policies, and few isolation facilities, confirmed Dr Tarek Fathey, an Egyptian doctor who is assistant director of The City Hospital, Dubai.

"In Egypt it is a big issue, it goes back to education and policies and training programmes, such as hand washing."

"In hospitals one of the problems is negative pressure - there are no isolation rooms - if there is central air conditioning then the infection moves around the hospital," he added.

A strategy is being drawn up by the AAP that will focus on a train the trainer scheme, with funding being organised through the MoH and other agencies such as the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.

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