[Hygiene barriers in the hospital--infectious aspects].

Barriers against hospital hygiene as an integral part of patient treatment are not at all a new phenomenon, as the example of Semmelweis shows. However, it is surprising, that even today sometimes negative statements of clinicians concerning the role of hospital hygiene don't differ significantly from those mentioned in the last century. The reason for this, however, has to be sought as well in our own failures. Especially in Germany, during the last decades hospital hygienists put the emphasize too much on scientific problems, which, in the clinicians view had no direct relevance to patient care. We were often not aware that the requirements of optimal infection control have changed, due to the increasing number of patients, whose infection risks varied greatly from those of former days. The meaning of hospital hygiene is more than routine checks of proper handwashing or control of bacteriological contamination, but needs a specialist well knowledgeable in the field of prevention, diagnosis and therapy of nosocomial diseases. However, these expectations could only be fulfilled if the hospital hygienist returns to the patient's bedside, thus cooperatively discussing together with the clinician all infectious and hygienic problems. This will be the only way, how the image of the hygienist as a policeman could be eradicated and hospital hygiene could be established as a self-evident and indispensable part of hospital patient care.