Evidence for infection control to prevent transmission of infectious diseases in hospitals

The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) was recently commissioned by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to conduct five (5) evidence reviews to provide the evidential base for the revision of national infection control guidelines for the prevention of transmission of infectious diseases in the healthcare setting.

The project involved the conduct of a series of comprehensive systematic literature reviews to address questions related to two broad domains:

•    Environmental cleaning; and
•    Multi resistant organism (MRO).

The five reviews conducted were:

1.    The effectiveness of environmental cleaning procedures in the prevention of transmission of infectious disease in the healthcare setting
2.    Effectiveness of demonstrating decolonisation of multi-resistant organisms
3.    Patient screening for multi-resistant organisms
4.    The effectiveness of isolation measures of patients infected with Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus (VRE) or Multi-resistant gram negative bacteria (MRGN) in reducing the length of hospital stay and in reducing the spread of infection to other patients
5.    The effectiveness of personal protective equipment at reducing the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and Vancomycin Resistant enterococci (VRE)
From each of these reviews, evidence statements were developed following the NHMRC guidance.