January 2003
2002, the sixth year of operation of the IFH, was very busy. The second international conference entitled ‘Preventing infectious disease in developing countries: a responsibility for all’ took place in New Delhi, India, and provided an opportunity to release the second set of IFH guidelines for prevention of infection in the domestic setting. Two major review papers covering IFH guidelines and recommendations were also produced, and the home hygiene scientific library kept regularly updated with new home hygiene publications.
The IFH also worked on a teaching resource for home-carers and their trainers, which will be available in 2003.

October 2002
In October we posted 'The Infection Potential In The Domestic Setting and the Role of Hygiene Practice In Reducing Infection', a new evidence-based IFH publication, reviewed by Prof Syed Sattar from the University of Ottawa. The object of the 'Infection Potential' paper is to review the infection potential in the home. We also made available the conference statement from the 2nd IFH conference held in Delhi, an important meeting that brought together leading researchers, experts, groups and associations that are responsible for generating policy advice on hygiene issues in the developing countries. Finally, three conference reports were published.
They report on the Annual Hygiene Symposium hosted Lever Ponds South Africa (South Africa), the symposium 'Are we too clean? A question of immunity balance', organised by the Royal Institute of Public Health (UK), and Food Micro 2002 (Norway).

September 2002
The Center for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, US, has recently published a draft set of Guidelines for disinfection and sterilisation in healthcare settings. The document is based on a rigorous assessment of the research literature (i.e. it is as far as possible evidence based). The document acknowledges that significant healthcare occurs in the home and devotes a section to this. The document makes reference to the targeted approach to home hygiene and to the IFH Guidelines on home hygiene.

May 2002
On April 15th and 16th the IFH held its second international conference in New Delhi, India. The scientific meeting “Home hygiene and the prevention of infectious disease in developing countries: a responsibility for all” was organised in association with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, the Institution of Public Health Engineers, and the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine. During the conference inaugural ceremony, Dr Thakur (Minister for Health & Family Welfare, India) released the new “IFH guidelines for Prevention of Infection and Cross Infection in the Domestic Setting: focus on home hygiene issue in developing countries. The conference abstracts, and the slides from the final remarks, addressing the need for an integrated approach to hygiene and the potential for development of public–private partnerships, can be downloaded from the site.

January 2002
News Bites

November 2001
Conference updates

July 2001
IFH representatives attended the summer conference of the UK Society for Applied Microbiology took place 10/12 July, 2001 at the University of Swansea. The title was "Antibiotic and Biocide Resistance in Bacteria: Perceptions and Realities for the Prevention and Treatment of Infection". A series of renowned speakers, among which IFH board member Sally Bloomfield, presented on one of the following subjects: 

• Target sites for antibiotics and biocides

• Mechanisms of bacterial resistance to biocides and antibiotics 

• Perceptions and realities of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and biocides for the medical, veterinary and food industries

• Biocide use and antibiotic resistance

The need to develop hygiene strategies based on a risk assessment approach, not only for manufacturing settings but also hospital and other settings, was proposed by a number of speakers.  

December 2000
The first international conference on home hygiene organised by the IFH was held on December 7th and 8^th 2000 in London. The conference entitled "Preventing Infectious Intestinal Disease in the Domestic Setting: A Shared Responsibility" was organised jointly with the UK Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) and held in association with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Summer 2000
This summer was characterised by two themes; infection control in the home and health education in the school. A new study by the Institute for Microbiology and Virology, Witten, Germany has shown how viruses can be transmitted within a household via direct contact and via inanimate contact surfaces. The UK Food Standards Agency announced a plan to reduce food poisoning by 20% by highlighting the need to raise the standard of food hygiene in the home.
The importance of health education in school was demonstrated with the establishment of a UK Schools Education Resource on Food Safety. In the US, a recent publication of the MMWR of the Centre for Disease Control highlighted school health education (SHE) as an important part of school learning.

September '99
Following a lively summer meeting in Stresa, Italy, the consensus opinion of the IFH Scientific Advisory Board concerning the threat of antimicrobial resistance, with particular reference to biocides use, is presented here, together with other news; the introduction of a new board member, upcoming consensus articles, and information on the update of the Home Hygiene and Health web site.

May '99
A team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are co-ordinating a major international multidisciplinary research proposal to investigate intra-household spread of microbes. The proposal will be submitted to the EC's new fifth framework programme. The team are interested in locating others working in similar areas for a potential 'cluster'.

March '99
The IFH at the American Society of Microbiology
Full details of t 99th Geneheral Meeting of the ASM at which the IFH Guidelines were presented can be found on the ASM Web Site.

November '98
Launch of IFH in Geneva, with Guest Speaker from WHO
Here is the report by Professor Nath of the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, presented at the IFH meeting. Environmental Sanitation, Hygiene and Community Health in India: Need for an Integrated Approach. Click on the title to download the text file ( 26.112 bytes)