ADVIN.ORG - Association for the Défense of Victims of Nosocomial Infections

The SC Department of Health and Environmental Control posted its report on hospital infections for the most recent six months. Hospital infections are a major public health problem in the United States. These infections are often called healthcare-associated infections. Patients can get them from routine care, surgery, as a complication from medical devices such as ventilators, catheters, and lines, or as a side effect of the overuse of antibiotics. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1.7 million healthcare-associated infections occur in U.S. medical facilities each year. These infections result in as many as 99,000 deaths and nearly $20 billion in additional healthcare costs annually. (The estimates are based on 2002 data.).

In the case of the hospitalisation of a large number of patients « the risk of transmitting the virus inside the hospital will rapidly increase . Each infected person contaminates two or three others» explains Philippe Vanhems, epidemiologist at Lyon Hospital (Hospices Civils de Lyon), France.

Hand hygiene remains the basic measure in the prevention of hospital-acquired infections. Hands carry 80% ofbacteria causing infections. Doctors and nurses are the staff that most neglect hand hygiene before touching a patient. They also should be more aware of the risk of contamination by the environment.

Many recent studies have revealed that hospital staff, particularly doctors, do not wash their hands before touching a patient. In Montréal, the MUMC (McGill University Medical Center) unveiled a study last January 2009 revealing the fact that 75% of doctors and 50% of nurses do not sanitize their hands at all before taking care of a patient. They are no worse than most of their colleagues elsewhere since most studies show that compliance with hand-washing directives averages less than 50%.