Outbreak Column 11: Consequences of outbreaks; lessons for healthcare workers and infection prevention and control teams

摘要

When I started my nursing career Crown Immunity was still in place. This meant that if ever something went wrong on Crown property, which included hospitals, then there was immunity from prosecution. This privilege, left over from a by-gone age, was swiftly removed following a notorious outbreak at the Stanley Royd hospital in 1984 (Hugill et al, 1986). The outbreak itself - a food-borne salmonellosis outbreak -involved 300 patients and staff and resulted in 19 deaths. The subsequent public enquiry - the report of which is extremely well written and remains a very useful read - included the following recommendations: Qeneral 9 p 110: "For this reason, and others that appear in our report, we recommend that a Control of Infection Nurse should be appointed by each District Health Authority and that such a nurse should be a member of the Cross-Infection Committee" (Hugill et al, 1986). Qeneral II p 110: "...the Proper Officer having been notified of a major outbreak of food poisoning or other serious communicable disease occurring in a hospital, such being defined as one in which more than 20 cases occur in 24 hours, shall at once request expert assistance from the director of the local Public Health laboratory and shall inform the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre" (Hugill et al, 1986).