There is no question that infection prevention measures in many modern-day situations could benefit from more resource, whatever form that resource may take. Thankfully, there are some things that require very little resource, can be included in everyday routines and have a big impact on preventing infections. Good hand hygiene is one of these.
Hand washing with warm soapy water has in fact been shown to be one of the things that has the highest impact in preventing the spread of many infections. The spread of foodborne gastrointestinal infections caused by bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes, shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, as well as viral infections such as norovirus and Hepatitis A can all be avoided by handwashing.
Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter, norovirus and Hepatitis A have all been in the news for causing outbreaks in recent times. The common thread across all these stories is an element of poor hygiene, including hand hygiene.
So what does the process of contamination and infection look like in reality? Here’s how a typical story might go:
Once upon a time there was an E. coli O157 bacteria that lived in a pile of manure on a farm after having grown up in the gut of a farm animal. Like its E. coli cousin who stayed in a muddy puddle, its distant relative Campylobacter who lived in the chicken manure, or it’s Bacillus neighbours who lived in the soil further away, E.coli O157’s only aim in life was to survive. It was not inherently malevolent even though it produces a shiga toxin that can cause severe health problems for anybody who eats it. It itself was just keen on surviving.
One day, the E. coli O157 bacteria found itself sucked up into a pipe and spat out over a field of where lettuces were growing. It landed on a lettuce and stayed there. It went with the lettuce to the food processing facility where the lettuce was sent to be used in salads and ready-to-eat sandwiches for caterers, schools and high street delis. This could have been the end for this hardy, pathogenic bacteria if the lettuce had been washed properly before it was used in the salads and sandwiches. The lettuce was not washed properly though, and the E. coli O157 bacteria’s journey continued to the school dining hall and then into a student’s gastrointestinal tract over lunch.
This story could be written with different bacteria or viruses in the main role and with reasons for poor hand hygiene ranging from a lack of access to clean water to a failure to wash one’s hands after using the bathroom. The general sequence of events and outcome would remain the same.
The lesson that we need to take from this story is that we need to do what is within our control as individuals to minimise the chance of contracting and passing on foodborne infectious diseases. We need to cast our minds back to the hand hygiene lessons that we were all fully conversant with a couple of years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic, or to the lessons that your mother taught you a few years before that about washing your food before you eat it, washing your hands before you eat the food and definitely washing your hands after using the bathroom.
Food safety is everybody’s business. At Biophys we work with primary processors, caterers and food producers to assess microbiological risks to food safety and to put strategies in place to mitigate these risks. Contact us if we can help in this regard.
