Nosocomial infections can be reduced even in a 50-year-old hospital if proper rehabilitation is carried out, including removing a layer of masonry or plaster and placing materials containing bactericidal solutions, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila said on Saturday, reports news.ro.

On Digi 24 on Saturday, Oleksandr Rafila was asked if there is a formula for reducing hospital-acquired infections in a 50-year-old intensive care unit or a half-century-old hospital.

• “You should know that I have seen the formula. Of course, it wasn’t about the ATI sections, but other sections with one condition that the section be decommissioned and fully upgraded.
• I am a microbiologist, so I speak with knowledge. I’ve heard all kinds of things about bacteria going up to five inches deep into a wall and others ten inches deep, all of which have nothing to do with reality.
• Bacteria do not penetrate the walls. If you do a proper remediation, including removing, say, a layer of masonry or plaster, and you put in materials that are solid and that mostly have bactericidal solutions, that’s ideal.
• And it doesn’t matter that it’s an old building,” said the Minister of Health.

He specified that the greatest danger is in the area of ​​sanitary facilities.

• “What causes us problems is not only related to the age of the building, the problem of danger in the plumbing area, which has two disadvantages. They are very old, and sanitary facilities are a place where bacteria are housed and destroyed very hard, because they are very difficult to approach, for example, in terms of a disinfectant.
• And there you really need to change the sanitary ware, change it completely. That’s one problem, the second problem is that we don’t have single bed lounges. One of the statistics published by the European Center for Disease Control concerns single-bed rooms or single-bed rooms in intensive care units.
• These salons, which allow individual care, significantly reduce the risk of infections,” Alexandrou Rafila also stated.