Prevention of respiratory outbreaks in the rehabilitation setting

Corpus, Carla; Williams, Victoria; Salt, Natasha; Agnihotri, Tanya; Morgan, Wendy; Robinson, Lawrence; Maze Dit Mieusement, Lorraine; Cobbam, Sonja; Leis, Jerome A

d viral testing resulted in ascertainment of more nosocomial cases even though there was reduced transmission through earlier use of droplet and contact precautions. Another possibility is that our intervention could not fully prevent nosocomial transmission as visitors continued to enter with infectious symptoms since we could not monitor this practice accurately. Finally, even though we reduced symptomatic visitation, either healthcare providers or visitors could have continued to transmit RV through asymptomatic viral carriage. 11 Some studies found limiting visits by children under the age of 12 during the winter months, may reduce nosocomial transmission of viral respiratory infection. 12 However, this approach may be a challenging and costly to operationalise as active screeners have to be strategically posted throughout the season.