c. difficile?

Question

I work in a nursing home in laundry can i contract this c.difficile .As i come in contact with alot of clothing that is solied .If so how can i protect myself from it and what other air borne bacteria should i be concerned about as i can get no straight answer from anyone as to what to do.Need some direction from a health care worker

Thanks for all your good answers now my question to you all the dead skin the i see when sorting all the soiled clothing clothing will that cause me any issues if i dont wear a face mask.

Answer 1

Prevention:
When hospital (ICU) outbreaks of Enterobacter infections occur, isolation and barrier protection should be implemented. Isolation precautions should also be implemented when a multidrug-resistant organism is isolated.
Hand washing or use of alcohol or other disinfecting hand gels by health care workers between contacts with patients prevents transmission of these and other nosocomial bacteria. This is particularly true in ICUs.
Prior antibiotic administration is a major factor for colonization and secondary infections with these multiple-antibiotic–resistant organisms. Clinicians are well advised to avoid unnecessary administration of antimicrobial agents or to avoid unnecessary prolonged administration. For surgical prophylaxis, administration of antibiotics for longer than 24 hours rarely is justifiable.
Education programs for physicians and hospital personnel regarding risk reduction for transmission of Enterobacter species and other nosocomial pathogens should be implemented in every hospital. This is usually the responsibility of the infection control team
Please see the web pages for more details on Clostridium difficile.

Answer 2

hello. The most important thing you can do is wear gloves when handling soiled material and frequently wash your hands. C. Diff. is contracted by contact, so those things are the most important things you can do. If you have a healthy immune system you should be okay, it might cause a little diarrhea. But just protect yourself, you could also wear a mask while doing laundry, but most airborne pathogens are only contracted when you are right by someone with the disease, not necessarily by doing laundry. hope this helps!


As far as the dead skin cells, no it should not cause you any problems if you do not wear a mask. Like stated above just wear gloves and wash your hands frequently!

Answer 3

Most cases of C. difficile infection occur after the administration of broad spectrum antibiotics. These wipe out the normal flora in your gut, opening the door for C. difficile to colonise the gut. In a health individual not taking antibioitcs, there chances of contracting the infection are quite low because unless it is already established in the gut, it is hard for the bacteria to get a foot hold - they don't divide quickly enough compared to the rest.

That being said, I do think you should consider asking for face masks when you are dealing with soiled material. You ought to have disposable gloves, apron and maybe a mask - but definately a mask during any outbreak of any infection that involves soiled material.

Wash your hands with an antibacterial after touching anything that is going into the laundry.

Other things to watch out for are the virus such as rotaviruses, but there is little you can do.

(oh, technically the bacterium C. difficile is not airborne, but its spores. bacteria aren't airborne)

Answer 4

i am not a medical professional, but the articles that i have read indicate that it is not airborne, but can be contracted from touching a surface that is contaminated with fecal matter (even just trace amounts) and the letting it into a mucas membraine - like rubbing you eye or nose...hand washing, wearing gloves etc is most important...and those at risk tend to be tose with immune issues, the elderly and children...you really should talk to the huamn resource person at your work, both for your benifit and for the benifit of your co-workers as it can be deadly...they should have addressed it - and if you can't do that - call the ministry of health and long term care and ask them what your nursing home should be doing...only way to stop the spread...

Answer 5

I am a PSW and all I can tell you to do is to wear rubber gloves. You can't avoid the air borne germs but wash your hands lots and get some of that antibacterial hand stuff and put that on too. I've been working in my job for only a couple of years but that's what I've learned. And I have to wipe butts and get right nitty gritty sometimes...gloves and hand washing.

Answer 6

C Diff is in stool. It takes position because the antibiotic kills the traditional plant existence contained in the bowels and shall we c diff take over. The stool is in a great number of cases diarrhea and extremely foul smelling. I continually advise that people on antibiotics devour yogurt in the course of the route because it replaces the traditional plant existence. it will be deadly contained in the elderly because of dehydration. Fluids are major and if the stool is quite loose bypass on a sparkling liquid weight help software no caffeine reason that could make it worse. solid success