Guidelines for preventing Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP)

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Guidelines for preventing Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP)

AP is a fatal disease and requires precautionary measures to avoid it from spreading as well as improving the outcome of the patients and the efficiency of the healthcare system. Various evidence-based guidelines have been proposed to help clinicians control the spread of the disease. The VAP prevention guidelines are usually enforced through educational interventions which ensure systematic reduction of healthcare associated infections (HCAI). VAP prevention guidelines call for clinical staff education on major disease prevention measures (Lerma et al, 2014). These guidelines advocate for the implementation of the most favorable infection deterrence and control measures which serve as a precautionary measure in prevention of HCAI. Hand hygiene is widely sensitized due its high association with reduction of HCAI related diseases. The guidelines also advocates for good environmental cleanliness. Clinical evidence holds that there exist high relationship between poor body and environmental hygiene with bacteria that cause HCAI (Krein, 2012). VAP may develop from exogenous nosocomical manifestation of organisms that exist in the environment. The prevention guidelines therefore expressly require high standards in decontamination of the environment (Bouadma, Wolff and Lucet, 2012).

VAP epidemic has been closely linked to a bacterial called Legionella pneumophila. The bacteria thrive in water and most likely obtained by patient from contaminated water. Prevention strategies stipulate measures that are correlated to clinical guidelines for control of Legionella. Clinical care environment has been identified as another factor that may lead to spread of VAP. Prevention guidelines stipulate that healthcare units should provide adequate bed spacing among patients and reduce multiple-bed wards. Further, the guidelines advocate for single room wards for all patients suffering from VAP related infections. Healthcare units are also required to have at least a single unit for airborne isolation. All clinical care areas are required to have at least a hand-wash sink per three beds and an alcohol hand-rub per bed (Lerma et al, 2014)…”