Call to promote safe health practices

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Jyot Se Jyot’ campaign, aimed at promoting awareness of safe health practices among doctors, nurses and other hospital staff, concluded here on Friday. The 51-day campaign organised jointly by National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), BD Healthcare and Indian Academy of Paediatricians (IAP) had begun on May 13, Nurses Day.  Speaking at the valedictory function, Dr Mohammed Kunju, president of IAP Thiruvananthapuram unit, said: “Safe health practices in hospitals have emerged as a very important issue. It is of paramount importance that a patient does not contract a new disease from a hospital or that doctors and other hospital staff do not fall sick upon being exposed to patients.” The campaign was conducted under the motto, ‘Safe healthcare professionals deliver safer healthcare’. According to Dr Mohammed, the most important aspect of safe health practice is efficient and safe waste disposal. “A hospital produces many waste materials, such as syringes, cotton etc., which are potential disease carriers. It is important that these materials are disposed in a safe manner,” he said. The main focus of the programme was on safe injection practices. “Hepatitis B and AIDS are the two most common diseases that spread to hospital staff who handle injection needles and syringes. This happens when the used needles accidentally pierce the hospital staff due to incorrect waste disposal  techniques,” he said. Recent surveys have shown that hospitals in remote areas are particularly susceptible to such incidents. “It is a fact that while the deaths in high-risk sectors such as construction and agriculture have gone down, work-related deaths in the health sector have grown”, said Dr Mohammed. Dr Riaz, secretary of IAP Thiruvananthapuram unit, recounted an experience he had, relating to diseases caught from hospitals. “I once worked in a small government hospital, which had a staff of just 35. Once, a check for jaundice was conducted in the hospital and we found that five of the staff members had symptoms of the disease. On further investigation, we found that the jaundice in those five members was not water-borne, but rather caught from the hospital waste they handled on a daily basis,” he said.