Pathogens? What is That?

When I got selected me as a lecturer, they sent me to the most peripheral hospital, saying that was the pattern they followed for IAS officers too. They had lied to me, so that they could accommodate someone lower down on the merit list in the topmost institute. They had sent orthopedics number one to the topmost institute and the last candidate to the most peripheral institute. Both Gynecology and Orthopedics interviews had taken place on the same day. All candidates selected in interviews conducted after that day were treated the same way as they treated me. SO be it. The reason they sent me there was for me to improve that hospital, they said. I believed them. There was need for improvement. Soon after joining that hospital I found out that the used surgical gloves were washed, dried, and powdered for reuse. It was done because the funds available were low and disposable gloves would not fit in the budget. What was upsetting was that the gloves were never sterilized. The servant would spread them on the floor, roll them in talc also spread on the floor, fold them neatly, and then put them in a drum meant for an autoclave, but which never saw the inside of an autoclave. The doctors and nurses in the hospital had been using such gloves for conducting deliveries, suturing episiotomies, applying vacuum and obstetric forceps, and performing blunt curettage for incomplete curettage. This had been going on probably from the day the hospital started years ago. The most surprising thing was that none of the patients developed any infection. I talked to the people concerned, and started getting the gloves autoclaved. I got transferred to the central institute after ten months. I hear they have gone back to the original practice some time after I left. The other day I found a second year resident suturing an episiotomy without a cap, mask, sterile gown, and without a sterile drape on the patient. The gloves were sterile, because we insist on that. It seems that was her usual method of working, and no patient had developed any infection in the one year she had been working as a resident doctor. I talked to her and found out she knew about microorganisms and principles of surgical asepsis and antisepsis. I extracted a promise from her that she would follow all those principles meticulously hence forth, but I doubt she will keep her promise. I have finally understood I can change only myself but never the rest of the world. The world has to feel the need for a change and has to change itself. In the meantime, since episiotomies are not gaping in both the peripheral and the central hospital, I wonder if the pathogenic microorganisms actually exist or it is just a lot of hype created by manufacturers of things required for preventing infections, and by pharmaceuticals manufacturing antibiotics. Just joking :-)