Bill Harvey: Spreading the disease

I recently undertook a contact lens assessment in the Woking area in the shadow of the monument commemorating the site of Martian landing from HG Wells’ War of the Worlds. Remembering that the aliens were finally defeated (spoiler alert) by Earth’s bacteria, I was reminded about the often ambiguous approach to avoidance of cross contamination adopted in our clinics.

Handwashing before contact with a patient or anything that will touch a patient (contact lenses for example) is essential. However, how many times have you seen someone wash their hands at the start of a consultation, only to write notes and touch various non-sterile surfaces before then touching the patient’s eye? The widespread availability of antibacterial gels makes sterility before each touch easy and is not an ‘OCD response,’ as a student once accused me of adopting.