Most hospitals have specifications on who can visit and the time people are allowed to visit a sick friend or relative. But parents are usually prevented from bringing young children usually to hospitals for visitation. Experts say this is for a reason and this is because children stand a risk of contracting many diseases, reports Sade Oguntola.

Visitors are welcome at the hospital. The visitors’ code makes it clearer for visitors what they should do if friends and families are admitted to the hospital. The code, aimed at ensuring safety and helping patients rest and recover when in hospital, includes that children(typically those under the age of 12) be kept from visiting, unless when absolutely necessary.

Many hospitals find it necessary to restrict visitors to those who are over a certain age because even minor colds can cause very serious illnesses in many hospitalised patients. For example, there are many people in the hospital who already have weakened immune systems and cannot risk being exposed to respiratory illnesses. This may complicate or extend the illnesses they are hospitalised for.

Children are exposed to a lot of germs - especially those that are in school and daycare. Even if they don’t get sick from those germs, they can pass them on to others, which can be very serious for patients that are hospitalised.

Perhaps surprisingly, children are not immunised against many germs that thrive in the hospital environment. For instance, they are exposed to superbugs, those infectious germs that make patients sick, and may even cause death. These germs are everywhere in the hospital.

Superbugs are natural, but life-threatening because it is very difficult to treat patients who get sick from them. They are invisible and can survive on surfaces for up to three days. That means that they can be transferred when one infected person simply touches another or when the patient touches something on which the germ resides like a stethoscope, a telephone or TV remote or even the bed linens.

Nonetheless. one of the biggest challenges to policies restricting hospital visitors coming in when visiting a person in the hospital who isn’t sick. Women who have just given birth and those who have had surgery often get lots of visitors.

According to Dr Adeola Fowotade, a consultant clinical virologist, Medical Microbiology Department, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, bringing children on visitation to a sick person in the hospital is usually discouraged because they will be exposed to all sorts of infections that their  immunity systems are not fully developed to handle.

 “Whether you like it or not, the hospital is an infection zone and you have various germs in the air, on the floor and so on. Even you touch doors, you cannot be sure of who might have earlier touched that door. You can never be too sure of what you are touching and that applies to the floor.

“We have very bad hygienic practice in Nigeria. You find people spitting along the corridor. Take for instance, a tuberculosis patient who suddenly coughs, produces sputum and splits this on the floor. By the time the sputum dries, the germs in it could be carried in the air to innocent babies, though healthy, but whose immune systems are not fully developed.”

Dr Fowotade, declared that because children are prone to contracting several viral infections, including colds and flues, they may end up being sick too.

When they are allowed to touch anything, sit, crawl or play on the bare floor of the hospital, they could contract germs that causes stomach upset and hepatitis, she stated.

Hospitals encourage relatives and friends to visit patients. However, the following are some guidelines on what not to do or do when visiting someone in hospital:

•It is best not to sit on the patient’s bed as this can spread germs. Use the chairs provided.
•Don’t put your feet on the patient’s bed.
•Don’t touch the patient’s wounds or any medical equipment they are attached to, such as drips or catheters. This can cause infections.
•Don’t use the patients’ toilets. Ask the ward staff where the nearest public toilets are.
•Don’t share property, such as toiletries, tissues or items of hospital equipment with the patients.
•Violence and aggression towards staff, patients or members of the public is not tolerated in any hospital.
•Don’t visit if your presence will cause stress or anxiety.
•Turn off your cell phone, or at least turn the ringer off. In some cases, they may interfere with patient-care devices. In other cases, it is simply a consideration for those who are trying to sleep and heal.
•Staying too long may tire her out. Better to visit more frequently, but for no more for a half an hour or so each time.
•Leave the room if the doctor or provider arrives to examine or talk to the patient. The conversation or treatment she provides is private.
•Don’t visit if your presence will cause stress or anxiety.
•Don’t take food to your patient unless you know the patient can tolerate it. Many patients, especially those with certain diseases or even those who have recently had anesthesia for surgery, are put on special diets while in the hospital.
•The odour from the smoke is nauseating to many people, and some patients have a heightened sense of smell while taking certain drugs or in the hospital environment.

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