Infant deaths due to infections picked up in hospital have been reduced by half in Bahrain following the introduction of an antiseptic alcohol hand rub for staff.

The Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (ICU) introduced the new hand rub and other infection control measures last year, following a rise in infant mortality rates.

In 2003 infant mortality rates (those aged four weeks and under) as a result of hospital acquired infections stood at 27, but in 2004 this rose to 65.

Following the implementation of the new procedures, from January to September last year, infant mortality rates due to hospital related infections were down to 36.

From October last year to June this year infant mortality rates due to hospital related infections had been reduced to 18.

Infections in the Neonatal ICU have also been reduced by 90 per cent since the changes were introduced.

Health Ministry Infection Control Higher Committee head Dr Huda Al Ansari said every visitor and healthcare workers is required to use the alcohol hand rub before coming into contact with a patient.

Prior to this, the model for hand hygiene was to only wash with soap and water.

"We still use soap and water, but the alcohol rub can easily be used more frequently," Dr Al Ansari told the Gulf Daily News, our sister newspaper.

"We ask people entering the Neonatal ICU to use the alcohol rub frequently and to wear a sterile gown and we limit the number of people entering."

Dr Al Ansari said infections in hospitals could be transferred from patient to patient, or from patient to healthcare provider, or from the patient to the community.

She said hospital acquired infections were usually resistant types, such as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MSRA) and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE), but the hand rub, which contains 70 per cent alcohol, was very effective in eliminating them.

The alcohol rub, said the official, would help to reduce the cost on the health service because people would spend less time in hospital due to infections.

As a result of the Health Ministry's efforts in hand hygiene and infection control Bahrain has been selected by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to host a complementary site for testing, evaluating and implementing strategies in the Eastern Mediterranean Regional (EMR) on guidelines for hand hygiene.

Dr Al Ansari has been selected by WHO to be a complementary site co-ordinator.

She will be in direct contact with WHO staff in Geneva to evaluate hand hygiene guidelines and the implementation of them via a special network in the EMR. The senior consultant in infectious diseases and clinical immunology will go to WHO headquarters in Geneva on Saturday to share the methodology and outcome of the Health Ministry's hand hygiene programme.-TradeArabia News Service