The Journal of hospital infection
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Food hygiene in British hospitals is reviewed in the context of national trends in food poisoning and changes in food legislation. New methods of large scale catering such as the cook-chill system are considered, and the safe operation of such a system in a typical health district is described. The application of current guidelines for the microbiological quality of cook-chill food is evaluated. The need for careful observance of these principles, together with appropriate microbiological surveillance of the process and the product, is demonstrated.
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Hospital-acquired pneumonias and urinary-tract infections are important causes of morbidity and mortality in surgical patients, and a great deal of effort has been expended on infection control strategies to prevent their occurrence. Prophylactic antibiotics, used either systemically or topically, are not routinely recommended for the prevention of either of these infections. The beneficial effects of these agents are transient, and they are often in association with the acquisition of colonization or infection with resistant bacteria. New approaches for infection control, not involving antibiotic agents, are being developed to lower the infection rates of both hospital-acquired pneumonias and urinary-tract infections to an irreducible minimum.