Hospital Infection: From Miasmas to MRSA

This is an absorbing account of the continuing battle to control hospital infections, from the earliest days of hospital care when bad air or miasma was thought to be the cause, to the present day and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant 'superbugs' such as MRSA and necrotizing fasciitis. It succeeds on many levels: as a fascinating social history of hospital care from mediaeval times, when patients endured verminous conditions, to the present day; as a survey of the rise, fall and emergence of new nosocomial infections; and as a chronological account of the emergence of medical microbiology and infection control. The pivotal roles of key personalities such as Joseph Lister, Florence Nightingale, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch are highlighted, and the history of this subject illuminates not only why hospitals and infections have had such an intimate and long relationship but one that seems destined to continue well into the future.

Professor Graham Ayliffe is well known around the world and he is the author of several highly regarded books on hospital infections and their control Dr Mary English is well known for her work in medical mycology and for her expertise in the epidemiology of fungal disease. She is also the author of numerous publications on medical mycology and two biographies of Victorian biologists

Foreword

ix

Preface

xi

Theories of infection: from magic to miasmas

1

(9)

The Middle Ages to the seventeenth century: hospitals and infection

10

(14)

The eighteenth century: hospitals and infection

24

(13)

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: typhus in military and civilian hospitals

37

(15)

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: lying-in hospitals and puerperal fever

52

(16)

The nineteenth century before Lister: military hospitals and wound infection, civilian hospitals and `hospitalism'

68

(19)

Theories of infection: from miasmas to microbes

87

(17)

Antisepsis to asepsis

104

(14)

The twentieth century: hospitals and miscellaneous infections

118

(16)

The twentieth century: the emergence of antimicrobial chemotherapy and the demise of the haemolytic streptococcus

134

(7)

The twentieth century: sterilization, sterile services and disinfection

141

(12)

The mid-twentieth century: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

153

(10)

The mid-twentieth century: Gram-negative bacilli

163

(8)

The control of staphylococcal and Gram-negative infections

171

(15)

The surveillance of infection and the organization of infection control

186

(14)

Emerging diseases at the end of the twentieth century

200

(19)

The past, present and future

219

(17)

References

236

(29)

Bibliography

265

(2)

Index

267

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Hospital Infection: From Miasmas to MRSA

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials