Wayne Spencer intended to write something on leadership for the opening of the new edition of ZENTRALSTERILIZATION and the recent events in Ukraine have brought this sharply into focus.

Have you considered buying a new car lately? And have you been amazed at the technological advances in car design? And what does all this have to do with sterile processing? Read Wayne Spencer’s Editorial and find out!

We have a saying in the UK, “today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper” and it’s perfectly highlighted by the fact that having a Brexit story on the news would now be a welcome change. But very recently the implications of it became once again relevant to our specialist sector.

A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was first reported to the WHO Country Office in China on 31 December 2019. That is less than 3 months ago as I draft this. This new corona virus was only given a name on February 11th 2020.
Now many people across the world are working from home where possible, avoiding close contact with others and living in isolation because of this virus that until a few months ago was unheard of.

The start to the new year was kicked off with an unpleasant surprise. A novel coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, is spreading very rapidly. So far, it has affected mainly people in the Hubei province of China. A few days ago the World Health Organization (WHO) declared this outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). That sounds alarming. The hygiene measures taken to control the outbreak are accordingly radical. What does this virus really mean?

Editorial from Steri-World 06/2018.

The Working Group for Testing Detergents (AG RMT) of the German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH) e.V.), which was set up in 2011, devised and developed a new test method for comparative evaluation of detergents for instrument reprocessing.

Should we sterilize all flexible endoscopes? We seem to have been discussing this question for a very long time. I first gave a presentation around this topic in 2012 and some 6 years later we still debate where the to draw the line between those that need to be sterilized, those that should be sterilized and those that don’t need to be. Perhaps because endoscope technology changes so quickly we will always have this discussion. Or maybe the duodenoscope cleaning issues have ignited the debate again.

Welcome to issue 3 of Steri World. We have a good mix of experience reports and conference reviews with an interesting article from Stephen Kovach and colleagues on enhanced visual inspection of medical devices.
When my friendly reminder to write this editorial came from mhp I was engrossed in a documentary on the television. Its was discussing operations on babies within the womb who had signs of spina bifida.