DUBAI, 21st July, 2014 (WAM) -- As patient safety remains the main concern surrounding the management of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the GCC, health experts in the region are calling for intensified measures to deal with a lack of environmental decontamination, which can facilitate transmission of MERS-CoV. According to Dr. Mushira Enani, Assistant Professor, Head-Infectious Diseases Section and Programme Director in the Department of Medicine at King Fahad Medical City in Saudi Arabia, hospital engineering should integrate infection prevention in hospital design to help prevent emerging and re-emerging viruses.
Dr. Mushira Enani will be speaking about the urgent patient safety dilemmas concerning the management of MERS-CoV at the upcoming Patient Safety Middle East Exhibition and Conferences taking place from 16th-18th September at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Dr. Enani states that the top patient safety dilemmas in 2014 are lack of infection prevention and control, as well as environmental hygiene, "In particular, hand hygiene is still sub-optimal in many healthcare facilities in the region, contributing to the spread of superbugs and emerging viruses to patients, consequently jeopardising their safety. As we have learned, MERS-CoV clusters within hospitals were triggered by poor practice of infection prevention that lead to a surge of the virus in multiple hospitals in the Arabian Peninsula. Many hospitals within the GCC region lack the availability of negative pressure rooms and HEPA filters to deal with the surge of airborne respiratory infection."GCC hospitals have dealt with the MERS-CoV surge by increasing awareness of hospital staff by direct communication with upper management, frequent email reminders, introducing infection control quizzes to staff, transparency, and the management pathways of suspected, probable or confirmed cases. Dr. Enani believes that the multi-disciplinary team efforts in facing the challenge of MERS-CoV were well-coordinated and successful, however, high risk situations such as the upcoming Haj pilgrimage is still a cause for concern. "The two pilgrimages are usually extremely crowded and that creates a high risk environment for those taking part. We advise that pilgrims maintain a balanced diet, healthy sleeping habits, practice standard infection prevention precautions, maintain personal and respiratory hygiene (e.g. coughing or sneezing etiquette), avoiding handshakes with obviously ill people, and wearing face masks in crowded places. Frequent hand hygiene using rapid sanitizers is advised," says Dr. Enani.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2014.
