by Jbs040610 f3 — April 9, 2010—Mayo Clinic researchers say they have found a way to reduce the acquisition of hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection rates and drop its frequency to a fraction of what it had been.
The process involves consistent daily cleaning of all high-touch surfaces with a spore-killing bleach disinfectant wipe for all patients on units with high endemic rates of C. difficile infection. The bleach wipes—containing 0.55 percent sodium hypochlorite—were selected because the bleach solution is the only product registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as effective against C. difficile spores, says Mayo.
The hospital rooms in the study were part of two units that housed general, gastrointestinal and pulmonary disease patients, averaging 39 patients a day. Each of these units has had high endemic rates of this infection. When the study began, one unit’s infection frequency was 61 per 10,000 patient days. The other was higher, at 106 cases per 10,000 patient days.
Patients and staff reportedly tolerated this daily cleaning with the bleach wipes without significant concerns. Researchers concluded that this type of disinfection process was effective at reducing C. difficile infections on these units and should be instituted in other hospital units with high infection rates.
