Unit 14: Hospital Hygiene, Infection Prevention and Control

Head:

Mardjan Arvand

Deputy:

Marc Thanheiser

The unit of Hospital Hygiene, Infection Prevention and Control (unit 14) is concerned with practical issues of infectious disease prevention, in particular the surveillance, analysis and evaluation of nosocomial infections.
unit 14 both supervises and administrates The Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infectious Disease Prevention, the elaboration and publication of relevant guidelines, consultation of the scientific community and records problems associated with the implementation of guidelines. In laboratory-based experiments, procedures to inactivate infectious agents and to interrupt chains of infection, such as disinfection, sterilisation and vaccination are developed and assessed experimentally.

Tasks

• The supervision and administration of the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infectious Disease Prevention at the Robert Koch Institute.
• Providing advice on matters of hospital hygiene to the Public Health System, hospitals and other medical institutions on the basis of the Hospital Hygiene and Infectious Disease Prevention guideline implemented by the RKI.
• Elaboration of statements and informative leaflets on matters of both infection hygiene and prevention for the Public Health System, communal facilities and other private institutions of the Public Health System.
• Elaboration and publication of the List of disinfectants and disinfectant processes as tested and approved by the RKI, according to §18 of the Protection against Infection Act (IfSG). The listings' introduction provides information on the German legislation on matters of disinfection and on the methodology of efficacy assessment employed by the RKI. Recent updates of the listing can be found in the appendix.

• Member or consultant of national and international (standardisation) committees (see Miscellaneous)

  Survey: "Hospital-associated Infection Surveillance System" (Krankenhaus-infektions-Surveillance-System, KISS) in collaboration with the National Reference Centre for the Surveillance of nosocomial Infections (Nationales Referenzzentrum für die Surveillance von nosokomialen Infektionen, NRZ). Currently, data on nosocomial infections and post-operative wound infections is collected in about 10% of German hospitals taking part in the survey voluntarily.Laboratory-based experiments to develop biological indicators for the validation of sterilisation procedures, elaboration of practical methods to test disinfecting ( including anti-viral agents) as well as procedures for the disinfection and sterilisation of complex medical devicesLaboratory-based experiments on the inactivation of chronically persisting bacterial pathogens.

Projects

• Survey: "Hospital-associated Infection Surveillance System" (Krankenhaus-infektions-Surveillance-System, KISS) in collaboration with the National Reference Centre for the Surveillance of nosocomial Infections (Nationales Referenzzentrum für die Surveillance von nosokomialen Infektionen, NRZ). Currently, data on nosocomial infections and post-operative wound infections is collected in about 10% of German hospitals taking part in the survey voluntarily.
• Laboratory-based experiments to develop biological indicators for the validation of sterilisation procedures, elaboration of practical methods to test disinfecting (including anti-viral agents) as well as procedures for the disinfection and sterilisation of complex medical devices
• Laboratory-based experiments on the inactivation of chronically persisting bacterial pathogens.

Miscellaneous

Member or consultant of national and international committees

• Medical Standards Committee in the German Institute for Standardisation (Deutsches Institut für Normung, DIN): Sections D1, D2, D3, D4, D6, D7, D8, D9
• German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie): Committee for Disinfectants
• German Association for the Control of Virus Diseases (Deutsche Vereinigung zur Bekämpfung der Viruskrankheiten e.V.): Committee for Disinfectants, Committee for occupational health and infection control
• Biological Agents CommitteeUA3

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