Infectious Disease Research Division, Hyogo Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Sciences, Arata-cho 2-1-29, Hyogo-ku, Kobe 652-0032, Himeji City Institute of Environment and Health, Sakata-machi 3, Himeji 670-0931, Division of Virology and Bacteriology, Nara Prefectural Institute for Hygiene and Environment, Ohmori-cho 57-6, Nara 630-8131 and Department of Microbiology, Oka...

The explosive rise in the incidence of atopic diseases in the Western developed countries can be explained on the basis of the so-called "hygiene hypothesis". In short, it attributes the rising incidence of atopic dermatitis to reduced exposure to various childhood infections and bacterial endotoxins. Reduced exposure to dirt in the clean environment results in a skewed development of the immun...

BACKGROUND Information on the part that poor food-hygiene practices play a role in the development of diarrhea in low socioeconomic urban communities is lacking. This study was therefore aimed at assessing the contribution of food-hygiene practice to the prevalence of diarrhea among Indonesian children. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted among 274 randomly selected children aged 12...

Aims of the Study: This study was carried out to determine the effective factors in environmental health status of grocery stores in the city of Qom (located in the center of Iran). Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 283 grocery stores from 3 different regions were selected randomly using stratified sampling. Data were gathered through ...

Even in an era in which access to personal "cleanliness" and a public health infrastructure are readily available in developed countries, illnesses associated with day care centres and homes continue to be a problem. The inhabitants of less developed countries, on the other hand, must contend with an inadequate public health infrastructure, lack of education programmes, and economic limitations...

The Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings provides health-care workers (HCWs) with a review of data regarding handwashing and hand antisepsis in health-care settings. In addition, it provides specific recommendations to promote improved hand-hygiene practices and reduce transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to patients and personnel in health-care settings. This report reviews ...

Background: Many outbreaks due to Serratia marcescens among neonates have been described in the literature but little is known about the role of whole genome sequencing in outbreak analysis and management. Methods: Between February and March 2013, 2 neonates and 2 infants previously hospitalised in the neonatal unit of a tertiary care centre in Switzerland, were found to be colonised with S. ma...

BACKGROUND To assess whether domestic kitchen hygiene is an important contributor to the development of diarrhoea in the developed world. METHODS Electronic searches were carried out in October 2006 in EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, Cochrane central register of clinical trials and CINAHL. All publications, irrespective of study design, assessing food hygiene practices with an outcome meas...