In a return to the I-like-Ike 1950s, chicken salad contaminated with Clostridium perfringens was confirmed as killing three and sickening more than 40 at Central Louisiana State Hospital in Pineville.

Dr. David Holcombe, medical director for Region 6 of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals' Office of Public Health, said C. perfringens is a naturally occurring organism, but it can spread to unsafe levels with improper food storage and handling.

The bacteria form spores that spread through food that has not been properly stored and become hard to completely cook away, Holcombe said, and they begin producing a toxin that makes people sick once they enter the lower intestine.

The iScrub Lite 1.5, a free app released on the iTunes store last Wednesday, allows medical professionals to enter data on hand hygiene compliance, which has typically been accomplished via old-fashioned clipboards and note cards.

Philip Polgreen, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa, where the app was developed, said,

"The long-term goal of our research is to understand hand hygiene behavior and use the feedback to help improve rates. This app can help standardize and streamline how observations are recorded."

According to CNET News, the app enables anyone who cares to monitor hand hygiene to record observational data, e-mail it as an Excel spreadsheet, follow World Health Organization compliance models, and customize data collection to reflect various locations, job roles, and notes.

Being a handwashing nerd, I kept a close eye on the staff at Manhattan’s Mercy General when daughter Sorenne was born 17 months ago.

They were watching me. Whoever was the control desk and let a new parent or visitor into the security-controlled maternity ward would insist people properly wash their hands before advancing any further.

Not so everywhere.

The Daily Mail is reporting tonight that furious parents are suing a hospital where two babies died during an E. coli outbreak after it emerged staff probably spread the infection by not washing their hands.

Thirteen newborn babies contracted an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bug at the neonatal intensive care unit of Luton and Dunstable Hospital in Bedfordshire.

An official report says widespread breaches of infection control measures, such as poor hand-washing regimes and equipment cleaning, were the likely cause.

The parents of two infants who became critically ill but survived the 12-week E. coli outbreak in October 2008 are seeking undisclosed sums from the hospital over the long-term health implications.

Colette Beard, 31, and her husband Greg, 28, said their son Lewis (above, right) suffered 'permanent damage' from the infection after he was born 15 weeks early on September 15, 2008. He spent four months recovering.

Todd Furnell (right), a two-year-old boy who suffered kidney failure following an E.coli outbreak at a petting farm was discharged from hospital after two weeks. Unfortunately his brother was still on a drip and too unwell to be released.

The Health Protection Agency said yesterday that a fifth farm has partially closed after identifying a further five cases of E. coli O157 in people who had visited Big Sheep and Little Cow Farm.