No. Thats a slippery slope.

the flu virus is more likely to stay alive outside the body if it is on a non-porous surface. this means that you are more likely to catch it from touching a doorknob then touching your nose or mouth than from someone's clothing. if you wash your hands frequently and don't touch your nose or mouth often, you are much less likely to catch the virus. the most common way of catching it is when someone coughs or sneezes and you breathe in the droplets containing the virus or your mouth or nose somehow come into contact with droplets of the virus. unless you stick your face in someones shirt and breathe deeply, you are unlikely to catch the flu through their clothing. in fact, we are advised to sneeze or cough into our sleeve if we don't have a handkerchief or tissue handy because this traps most of the virus and it dies before it can come into contact with another person's mucous membranes.

another thing, if a professional person is knowingly working with someone with h1n1 flu, i am sure they are required to take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus outside their workplace. this virus isn't any deadlier than the regular flu, it is actually slightly less contagious. the only cause for concern is that there is no antivirus so the medical system could become overwhelmed or quarantines could lead to delays in essential goods and services.

it's easy to find all the facts at the cdc website if you are willing to read up for yourself and not get caught up in any hype.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

By your arguement, you imply the 81 infected were in close contact with the infected. The CDC stated they became infected because of lax obedience to protocols. That being the case this would be a workplace issue and under the juridiction of OHSA?

It is kinda ironic,

This debate is over.

HR 2937 is on the House Floor today.

I expect to recommend employer policy. The action to be taken for violation by Healthcare Employees.

First Offense
Written Suspension, No pay.

Second Offense
Termination

Third Offense
Barred from practice.

We will just see how long you wear those NASTY SCRUBS IN PUBLIC!

I really do not see how scrubs are nasty. After all, the nurse you may see at your next doctor appointment or in the ER has probably worn the SAME scrubs ALL day, barring any soakage of blood or bodily fluids. Think of how many patients he/she has seen before you. If that is not exposure, then I dunno what is.

I have MRSA would you like me to rub against her then her you! This isnt AIDS! I can touch something and days later you do! How did I get it is the topic of this debate. Exposure, lets just put an contaminated entrance on walmart where they get little dead smiley faces so they dont finish the job of killing me and maybe your KID!

I work in a labratory at a hospital. At this same hospital, I go to patient rooms to draw blood, take throat swabs, take biopsies, etc. There is LIMITED exposure to our scrubs, more exposure to our own hands than there is to our scrubs. Patients do not generally rub on nurses or lab technicians. They generally do not sneeze on us either. There is a reason we wear gowns to protect our scrubs when dealing with patients with infectious diseases, a reason we ask that some patients wear masks. I usually change before leaving work, but sometimes I am in a hurry and have to pick up my kids, especially on days their father has overnight duty. I stop by the store on my way, grab a snack and a water or tea, and I am on my way out. I have never had anyone avoid me because I am wearing scrubs, have never had anyone complain that I am wearing scrubs in a public area. Actually, they see my scrubs and ask what I do for a living. Scrubs are NOT nasty. If a nurse or worker in a hospital cannot use proper hazard/contamination barriers, then the hospital worker themselves is nasty. Don't clump all scrubwearers into one big lump. Also, I have friends who buy scrubs at stores to wear JUST because they are comfortable. So not everyone who wears scrubs has been working in a hospital or doctor office.
Just to add, if it was SO dangerous or nasty to wear scrubs, we, as health care workers, would be REQUIRED to change our scrubs with EVERY new patient we see. This is NOT the case. We are required to change our scrubs if we are significantly exposed to blood, bodily fluids, etc. And, as I stated earlier, we are REQUIRED to protect ourselves, just like doctors, with sterile gowns, masks, booties, etc, if there is an infectious disease risk or if a patient is bleeding profusely or if any large amount of other bodily fluid is present. Just because SOME nurses did not follow this procedure DOES NOT mean scrubs are nasty, does not mean that all nurses/health care workers do not follow the procedure. For those that do not know, the gowns go OVER the scrubs. Meaning scrubs are PROTECTED. Meaning we, as healthcare workers are protected, and you, as the general public, is protected.

Okay, first of all, if you are wondering how you got MRSA, and if that is the true topic of this debate, then make that clear. MRSA can be spread MANY ways, not just in hospitals or doctor's offices. You can get a cut on your hand and develop MRSA. You can get MRSA, just as easily as I can, by touching an object that has been exposed to the MRSA bacterium. The less porous the object, the more your risk goes up. Scrubs are quite porous. EVERYONE, not just those who wear scrubs and deal with sick people, is at risk of contracting MRSA and other infectious diseases, and EVERYONE is at risk of SPREADING those diseases. Just because one works in a doctor's office or at a hospital or morgue, etc, does NOT mean they should have to change their clothes that they wear to work before leaving work. I wouldn't expect that of a butcher or a baker. They both, just like health care workers, expose themselves to bacterium, but also have a protocol that requires wearing protective clothing to reduce risk to themselves and to public.
On another note, I am wondering, since you do have MRSA, are YOU staying out of the general public? Are YOU washing down everything you touch, including the keyboard you are touching to type on this forum? If not, then you are putting more people at risk than I ever have. Protecting the public goes two ways...health care workers must follow strict protocol and the general public themselves must stay away from others if they are sick.

This post is being reviewed and is temporarily unavailable.

labworker quoted "Just because one works in a doctor's office or at a hospital or morgue, etc, does NOT mean they should have to change their clothes that they wear to work before leaving work. I wouldn't expect that of a butcher or a baker."

Yes I see a half dozen bloody butchers in Walmart! NOT!

Uhh duh! She meant we wear protective gowns,(not the patient) when dealing with any possible infectious substance. That protects our scrubs too! there are all sorts of protocols and procedures just in place to protect you and us. Health Care is expensive enough. you really want to add to it by making companies pay for new scrubs in between pt's and before we go home...to make you feel better.geeez...

Labworker qoute: "On another note, I am wondering, since you do have MRSA, are YOU staying out of the general public? Are YOU washing down everything you touch, including the keyboard you are touching to type on this forum? If not, then you are putting more people at risk than I ever have. Protecting the public goes two ways...health care workers must follow strict protocol and the general public themselves must stay away from others if they are sick."

The keyboard I touch? No I am not worry about infecting me anymore than you are. When I am active, I avoid the public. ESPECIALLY infants, elderly, and those who may have a compromised immune system. If you were as conscientious we wouldnt be having this debate.

CHOP meaning I am hitting the post button.

Llang,

we/us I will deal with you shortly. First reread the thread and post to the issue. As for proceedures, I wager you cant put five in order.

When my skin is intact, yes. If I go to the toilet, i carry a personal aerosol. I spray it before, I spray it after, I wipe it down, flush again, then spray again. Then I wash my GLOVED hands. You do know how to wash right? When I was recovering never once did anyone wash. Hell they didnt even empty the waste basket till the day I left! Never once changed my sheets or my cohort's.

Labworker & Llang, Yes I understand that healthcare is expensive, my zyvox is $100 a pill. A cost I would not be burdened with had a Ronald McDonald Healthcare graduate washed their hands. Where do you wash those scrubs? The apartment laundry, do you disinfect the washing machine like I do the toilet? Cross your Heart?

Labworker, what is the droplet protocol? Llang what is acanthamoebia?

A wind tunnel...

EHEALTH I am that good that I knew where the page break would be.

The droplet protocol in the hospital I work at requires that we wear protective gowns/face masks/gloves over our clothing when there is a risk of infectious disease. If we are not able to protect our clothing or if we are dealing with a patient in the ER and are unsure of a diagnosis, if we get sneezed on or are exposed to blood/bodily fluids, we are either required to change our scrubs (which, unlike you think, we always have extras and what you see in Walmart may very well be a clean pair of scrubs)or apply disinfectant spray on the areas exposed. Like I said earlier, do not clump all health care workers together. I am sorry that the hospital you were in had poor protocol. Where I work, we MUST wash hands after every patient contact, we MUST wear gloves, we MUST protect the patients and ourselves from exposure. We as health care workers are NOT responsible for the emptying of hazardous waste materials or trash, that is up to the HASMAT department of the hospital and the hospital custodians. As far as washing my scrubs, there is no need to disinfect the washer, that is what HOT WATER, bleach and LAUNDRY soap is for. I wash my scrubs in the same washer I use to wash my kids' clothes...and THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SICK due to cross contamination from a patient I have seen. By the way, it is not the laundry soap or bleach that kills bacteria/viruses...that only helps a bit. Nor is it the hot water. There is this little thing in the washer called an AGITATOR...look up why soap is not exactly needed to kill germs. It is the hot water and FRICTION that kills the germs. That is why steam cleaning is so effective. Oh, and we can always wash our scrubs at work, if needed...which I have done before. As far as not changing your sheets goes, there is a REASON we don't do that unless it is necessary. We, as far as protocol goes, have a responsibility to ourselves and our other patients to lessen the risk of exposure. Unless needed, the sheets are NOT changed until the patient leaves. And by needed, I mean as far as blood/stool/urine/vomit goes. Just ask one of the many women on this forum like myself that have been in the hospital for preterm labor. Or the many other people who have been in the hospital for extended amounts of time. They not once changed my sheets either. Well except for the time my magnesium bolus caused me to vomit. I got those protective pads placed under my bottom and those were changed. My sheets were changed when I was moved to a gurney to be sent to the OR for an emergency c-section, the bed was wiped down and disinfected, like protocol states.
And as far as acanthamoeba goes, there are several kinds, acanthamoeba keratitis is a rare disease where amoebae invade the cornea of the eye, acanthamoeba granulomatous encephalitis is an opportunistic protozoa that rarely causes disease in humans but in patients with it, they are usually immunocompromised, with diabetes, cancers, AIDS, lupus, or even alcoholism. Acanthamoeba can increase MRSA numbers by 1000-fold. MRSA can infect and replicate inside of Acanthamoeba polyphaga, which is WIDESPREAD throughout the ENVIRONMENT (I capitalized that because it is not JUST HOSPITALS where this can happen, it can happen ANYWHERE). Because A. polyphaga can form cysts, the cysts infected with the MRSA can act as a mode of AIRBORNE dispersal for MRSA, not DIRECT CONTACT, but AIRBORNE. Meaning you would get it from breathing in the bacterium, not through touching someone's scrubs. That is why hospital ventilation equipment is being looked at as a cause for hospital-related MRSA and NOT THE HEALTHCARE WORKERS THEMSELVES. There is hospital protocol set in place for prevention of airborne MRSA, including new ventilation and filtering systems. I need to add that we as healthcare workers, and patients themselves, are partially at fault for these mutated bacterium. These bacterium became resistant to our antibiotics because we gave out antibiotics to patients with simple infections their bodies could rid themselves of. Such as parents with a child with a simple bacterial ear infection. These practices of handing out antibiotics for every little infection have made bacteria, once killed by the antibiotics, resistant to the antibiotics now. These practices were more common when Methicillin came out, which was in 1959 but continued until recent medical research was done and it was found that the risk of taking the antibiotics, which one of the risks was creating a resistant bacterium, greatly outweighed the benefits, especially when it comes to infections that the body can generally take care of itself or with a weaker antibiotic or other treatment, such as ear infections, some skin infections, and some respiratory infections. Methicillin is no longer clinically used, but term methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be used to describe staph aureus strains resistant to all peneicllins. Methicillin is no longer manufactured because the more stable and similar penicillins such as flucloxacillin, dicloxacillin, and oxacillin are used medically. As far as the resistant bacterium go, advances have been made in medical research and there are now other antibiotics that can be used to kill MRSA, which is not a death sentence.
Oh, and do not call names on this forum, especially obscene names or you can be reported. And thank you, but if "Labworker" is supposed to be insulting to me, it isn't. I am proud of the field I work in, making a difference in my patients' lives by diagnosing their cancers early, diagnosing what they have so they can be cured, or letting them have joyous news, such as finding out they are expecting a little one.

That is truly sad. Just like when one has lice or scabies generally it is required that a thorough washing of EVERYTHING is done to prevent recontamination. You are putting yourself at risk of getting the infection all over again if you cannot take the time to wipe down your own keyboard or frequent handwashing and sanitation of objects you touch. I am very conscientious. And this post goes to show it. I am glad you are at least only exposing yourself. When I go out, I do not expose anyone to anything they are not already exposed to being in a public place. As a matter of fact, I am probably "cleaner" than most of the general public due to frequent handwashing, gloves, masks, surgeon caps, booties, and wearing sanitary, sterile gowns over my scrubs for most of the day (I usually deal with the NICU patients, so we are required to wear protective gowns, as premature infants are VERY fragile). And since I already pointed out that MRSA contracted from hospitals is AIRBORNE (recirculating ventilation of hospitals is being blamed for MRSA in hospital settings) and NOT FROM health care workers themselves, then NO ONE needs to be afraid of someone wearing scrubs. And also, like I stated before, not everyone who wears scrubs just got off work at a hospital or doctor's office/clinic. It could be a person like my good girlfriend, who just likes the feel and comfort of scrubs.