Practices Minimizing Microbial Growth
Health care-acquired infections (HAIs) can also be termed nosocomial infections. They are associated with high death rates and morbidity. Patients succumb to these infections during the period of receiving treatment for medical issues and surgical conditions. These kinds of infections are not only limited to hospitals, but one can acquire them receiving treatment and care from nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, surgical centers, ambulatory clinics, among others. Individuals with weak immune systems, young children, and old people are at a higher risk of acquiring such infections.
Health workers can contribute to these infections if they fail to wash their hands before handling patients and treating patients with antibiotics for a very long time, as this makes them susceptible to HAIs. Institutions such as the Centers for disease control (CDC) carried out the research. They discovered that Healthcare infections are about 1.7 million in America, and out of the 1.7 million,99,000 people succumb to death due to the infections. At least one patient is suffering from HAI in 25 hospitals in the U.S. and other additional cases in the Healthcare facilities (HAI data. (2019, April 16). It has also been estimated that out of the 1.7 million infections,14%are infections of the bloodstream,15% infections of the lungs,22% are infections on surgical sites, and infections of the urinary tract represent the largest remaining portion.
Centers for disease control use the given data to improve the use of antibiotics and to minimize the infections. Improvements to be made include 50% reduction in bloodstream infections, reduce 36%of healthcare-associated invasive, 24% decrease in CAUTI in between the year 2009 and 2014 acute care hospital ward infections, reduce 8% of hospital-onset Clostridium difficile infections, reduce 17% of surgical site Infections (CDC winnable battles progress report. (2019, September 5).Healthcare acquired infections has got many shortcomings. When patients get infected by these infections, they are forced to extend their admission periods in the care facilities, and this means that if the patient is an employee, they will not go to their work stations; hence they may not receive salaries, or their wages may be reduced. In this case, the families of such patients suffer a great deal economically. An extended stay at the caregiving facilities means additional use of the supplies and services, and thus additional bills should be catered for. This leads to an accumulation of bills to massive digits, which may not be affordable by the patients. It can also lead to deaths; this affects families economically and emotionally.
Pressure application is a physical method of minimizing microbial growth. When microbes are exposed to extremely high pressures, they seldom survive. Pressure application has been used to kill microbes in many food industries. Microbes such as bacteria and viruses which tend to reduce food quality and shelf life are killed in the process known as pascalisation (Malinowska-Pańczyk & Kołodziejska, 2005).In medical care facilities, microbial infections are treated by the application of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In this method, infected individuals are placed inside a chamber called the hyperbaric chamber or rather the supplying oxygen that has been pressurized in breathing tubes to the patient. Normally, the individual takes in purified oxygen at a pressure of between 1atm and 3 atm. This improves oxygen supply in the tissues that have become hypoxic due to swelling and the effects of infection by the microbes.
The immunity responses are thus triggered due to the increased supply of oxygen into the tissues; hence cells responsible for protecting the body against infections e. g lymphocytes, leukocytes, and macrophages become active. Increased oxygen supply also inhibits bacterial organisms from releasing toxins, which destroys the tissues.It is also effective in minimizing the growth of Clostridium perfrigens, which causes gas gangrene by leading to the formation of free radicles. This method has got its shortcomings, though, and we find that sensitive organs like the eyes and the lung can be destroyed due to oxygen toxicity and high pressure in the supplied air.
Radiation is the other effective and efficient method of killing microbes and also effective in controlling and minimizing their growth. Many types of radiations exist e. g, the X rays, gamma rays, and high energy electron beams, which are known to have an ionizing effect. These radiations are capable of passing through cells and can damage the cellular components and also disorients the molecular cell structure. For example, DNA mutations result when the radiations create double-strand brakes between the molecules in DNA and also by reconstruction of the damaged DNA molecules which are fatal upon accumulation they also result to formation of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals which the cellular components like DNA thus resulting to damage of DNA by the ionizing particles as they cause mutations which kill microbes (Mahdi & Gomes, 2019). These radiations can thus be used to sterilize equipment, which is commonly used when treating patients—also used to kill microbes in substances that are sensitive to heat like tissues that are used for transplantations and pharmaceutical medicine.
Non-ionizing radiations are like the U.V. rays, which consume little energy as compared to the ionizing radiations. It is unable to enter into the cells. U.V. light is known to cause the formation of thymine Dimers between thymine’s that are adjacent in one strand of DNA. It leaves out the complementary nucleotides, and thus, mutations that kill microbes are formed. Due to this attribute, lamps used in surgery sections are designed to emit U.V. light so as destroy microbes that may cause Health care infections, used in laboratories to control microbial growth, and are included in systems that purify water to kill microorganisms.Therefore before handling patients, equipment such as gloves and blades are usually passed through radiations to kill the microbes, and thus health -care infections are minimized.
Alcohol is widely to reduce the presence of microorganisms, which include a virus, and bacteria.70% alcohol content is enough to kill bacteria, especially on skin surfaces, thus made the recommended concentration. Alcohol work as a disinfectant and prophylactic. Alcohol kills the bacteria by denaturing them, and they denature proteins that inhibit the metabolism of the cells. At a higher concentration of 100% aqueous solution, alcohol denatures faster and efficiently. Immediately after denaturing, the proteins refold if there is enough water because proteins coagulate on subjection to alcohol. A higher concentration of alcohol concentrations causes rapid aggregation of surface proteins, therefore, preventing effective penetrations of cells. Alcohol dries quickly when used on the skin to disinfect but can also cause skin itching since they cause skin dehydration. It is therefore said that frequent use of alcohol-based disinfectants reduces the chances of irritation as compared to the use of soaps as a way of reducing microorganisms.However, the use of alcohol-based disinfectants is harmful to damaged skin. Alcohol-based disinfectant is mainly used doctors to disinfect the skin surface in order to kill bacteria or a virus on the skin surfaces before inserting the needle into the skin to give an injection. Hand sanitizers have also gained popularity as they are widely used for disinfection. Components include alcohol, propanol, and isopropanol. Sanitizers majorly work by denaturing proteins and disrupting the cells of microorganisms,the hand sanitizer may not effectively work on visible dirt. Clostridium difficile is a type of microbe that can be killed by ethanol at high concentrations.
Pressure application is one of the methods used to control the microbe’s population and growth. It is very effective in treating diseases like gas gangrene caused by clostridium perfrigens. It prevents bacterial organisms from releasing toxins that may damage tissues. Mainly applied in hyperbaric oxygen therapy where patients are placed in the hyperbaric machines and purified pressurized oxygen of between 1 atm and 3 atm is supplied into the individual. Increased oxygen supply thus helps in boosting the immunity as it activates the white blood cells.
Alcohol-based sanitizers and disinfectants are cheap and readily available and effective in killing spores and microbes on surfaces. It is important in preventing the introduction of microbes into the body when applied in the skin surface before giving an infection (Marty Cooney et al., 2020). They are found to denature the proteins of microbes, thus inhibiting the vital processes in bacterial, thus killing them. It thus minimizes HAIs infections if properly used. Clostridium difficile can be effectively controlled by the use of high ethanol concentrations
Radiations are known to cause mutations in the DNA of microbes, thus killing them. They are of two types, the ionizing radiations e. g X-rays and the non-ionizing radiations e. g the U.V. light. Ionizing radiations work by forming ionization molecules which kills the microbes. They are used in killing microbes on heat-sensitive substances. Non-ionizing radiations are used in sterilizing medical equipment. Radiations are thus important as they minimize the chances of individuals contracting infections.
References
CDC winnable battles progress report. (2019, September 5). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/winnablebattles/report/HAIs.html
HAI data. (2019, April 16). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/hai/data/index.html
Malinowska-Pańczyk, E., & Kołodziejska, I. (2005). Wpływ wysokiego ciśnienia na mikroorganizmy.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274194478_Effect_of_high_pressure_on_microorganisms/citation/download
Mahdi, A. B., & Gomes, C. (2019). Effects of microwave radiation on microorganisms in selected materials from healthcare waste. International journal of environmental science and technology, 16(3), 1277-1288.
Marty Cooney, R., Manickam, N., Becherer, P., Harmon, L. S., Gregg, L., Farkas, Z., … & Shade, W. (2020). The use of 3.15% chlorhexidine gluconate/70% alcohol hub disinfection to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections in dialysis patients—British Journal of Nursing, 29(2), S24-S26.