Infection Control Team of the Year Awards

The team's many positive outcomes included intervention programmes resulting in reduced rates of Clostridium difficile and methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections; a six-week audit of the use of Tazocin to reduce unnecessary usage (thus achieving substantial savings in the drug budget); investigation and successful control of outbreaks of norovirus, endophthalmitis and MRSA; development of a protocol for the decontamination of high-touch surfaces; and research into the carriage of MRSA on mobile telephones (J Hosp Infect; January 2006).

The judges were also impressed by the team's participation in national and international initiatives, including the Royal College of Nursing's Wipe It Out campaign and the World Health Organization's Global Safety Challenge. Overall, the judges felt the entry demonstrated a real commitment to team working and provided hard evidence of successful initiatives in a wide variety of areas.

Second prize was awarded to a team from Banso Baptist Hospital in the Cameroon, and third prize went to a team from the Health Protection Agency, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, England.