[Hygiene specialists].

In 2009 the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Prevention of Infections (CHHPI) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) published recommendations on the personnel and organisational prerequisites for the prevention of nosocomial infections. Emphasis was placed on the tasks of all members of professional groups who belong to or work closely with a team of hygiene specialists in an institution for outpatient or inpatient medical care. Since these recommendations have not yet been adequately implemented and because of the repeated occurrence of hygiene deficits in the health-care services the legislature has been forced to pass a new law on hospital hygiene. This law requires the managers of hospitals and other medical facilities to avoid nosocomial infections and to abide by the recommendations of CHHPI and RKI. The already existing shortage of hygiene specialists, and especially of hospital hygiene specialists, is thereby further intensified. Thus there are initiatives to provide physicians working in hospitals with further training in hygiene so that they can take over the functions of a hospital hygiene specialist.