M A Borg

..One potential explanation could be national cultural differences resulting in varying perceptions and, therefore, influences...

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..The recommendations also made it clear that ownership of the problem needs to be improved throughout the region and that resources, both financial as well as human, must be allocated by the respective policy makers in order to combat it...

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..001) and that use of soap and water was preferred over use of alcohol-based hand rub. These findings suggest that self-protection could be a major subliminal driver for performance of hand hygiene...

..This evidence calls for a greater focus on the identification of relevant drivers of resistance and on the implemention of effective practices in order to address the problem of resistence...

..This suggests that infrastructural deficits related to insufficient bed availability and compounded by inadequate isolation facilities could potentiate MRSA hyper-endemicity in south-eastern Mediterranean hospitals...

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..Hospitals are therefore being encouraged to undertake surveillance and benchmarking of antimicrobial consumption patterns with a view to identify and rectify possible evidence of overuse or misuse...

..The study indicates the need for an educational campaign on proper antibiotic use amongst the Maltese general public...

..463; P<0.05) between new cases of MRSA infections and overall levels of bed occupancy. This would imply that overcrowding may be a relevant factor in MRSA spread within hospitals, even in non-intensive care settings...

..Hepatitis B transmission from students to members of staff has been documented in schools, particularly nurseries and day care centres...

..All strains were susceptible to vancomycin, but four (0.88%) exhibited teicoplanin MICs of > 12 mg/L. High methicillin-resistant S.aureus endemicity was not an accurate predictor of the emergence of non-susceptibility to glycopeptides...

..However, knowledge about the situation in southern and eastern countries of the Mediterranean is incomplete since reports have been sporadic and difficult to compare...

..We investigated the impact of bed occupancy, particularly overcrowding, on the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in general ward settings...

..There is clearly a need for further investigation of potential causes of the significant resistance identified, as well as for strengthening of national and international surveillance initiatives within this region.;..

..They suggest that this is particularly the case in the eastern Mediterranean region where resistance in S. aureus and E. coli seems to be higher than that reported in the other countries of the Mediterranean...

..Only a minority of hospitals had published antimicrobial treatment guidelines or gave feedback on antimicrobial resistance data to prescribers...

..Corrective efforts are clearly required in the region to ensure proper use of antimicrobials so as to reduce pressure for antimicrobial resistance...

..While the presence of the other MRSA strains suggests foreign importation due to travel between Malta and other European countries, the CC5/t002 strain appears, so far, to be restricted to Malta...