This red-coloured rod of the Pseudomonas genus looks harmless - aesthetic, even. But appearances are deceptive, because this is a dangerous hospital germ.
- Kateryna/fotolia.com
Germs have no chance at the Institute of Hygiene at Münster University Hospital (UKM). In the foyer a woman carefully wipes down one bar table after another. On the floor above her there is the pungent smell of disinfectant. And there is a good reason why cleanliness is to the fore here: the medical staff who work here have declared war on all types of germs, including multi-resistant bacteria. "Hygiene means prevention," says lecturer Dr. Alexander Mellmann, a hygiene specialist. "We try to prevent anything serious happening." Such as a case in Bremen, for example, where three babies died in the intensive care unit for premature babies in 2011. Or in Leipzig, where, within two years, 63 people in the University Hospital became infected with a multi-resistant pathogen.
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