The simple act of proper hand washing goes a long way in stemming the spread of illness.According to Beza Dagnachew of the Infection Control Department at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, its importance should not be underestimated.She said good hand-washing practices by KEMH staff caused the recent outbreak of gastroenteritis to end much faster than it would have in many other facilities.“It has helped. Normally when there is an outbreak like this in a facility, it can drag on for weeks,” she said. “I think we’ve done pretty good to control it in a short period of time.”The outbreak started with one patient on Gordon Ward and quickly spread to other patients and a few staff.Ms Dagnachew said Infection Control staff acted as soon as they received word of the cases of diarrhoea on the ward.“There are many reasons why a patient may have diarrhoea and so, even if more than one person has it, this does not necessarily indicate an outbreak,” said KEMH Infection Control manager Linda Rothwell. “For example, diarrhoea can be a side effect of medication the patient is taking.”The department is alerted when staff notice “any unusual trend” in the number of people with any type of infection, they said.Additionally, Ms Dagnachew said the Infection Control Department liaises daily with the Emergency Department and the Continuing Care Unit in an effort to detect possible problems before they escalate to outbreak status.“If there are three or more people coming in with the same symptoms, this may indicate infection is spreading in the public,” she said. “I’m a preventionist so I take steps to prevent and/or minimise the spread of infectious disease.”The Infection Control Department closed admissions to Gordon Ward and restricted access as part of the strategy to stem the spread of the bug causing the gastroenteritis. As a result, the outbreak was short-lived. Access restrictions to the ward were lifted Friday.