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Have you ever been admitted to the hospital for surgery or illness? Have you ever caught an infection unrelated to your surgery or illness? If so, you have been the victim of a nosocomial infection also known as hospital-acquired infections.
C. difficile, MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus), are well known, but there are many others.
Do you know that you have more chances to die from a nosocomial infection than from a car accident?
Every year in Quebec, 90 000 people are afflicted by these infections and, of that number, 4000 die immediately.
A minimum of 50% of these infections could be avoided by better prevention and control measures such as strict hand hygiene.
Nosocomial infections are also very costly to the health system. On average they cost 180 millions dollars yearly.
By joining ADVIN you contribute to the promotion of safe care and quality hospitals.
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SANITIZING HOSPITALS PREVENTS NOSOCOMIAL INFECTIONS |
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Written by Christine Besson
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Sunday, 20 April 2008 |
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Far too often, hospital buildings themselves are not properly equipped to combat the ever-increasing nosocomial infection rate. Although hygiene measures such as hand washing are absolutely indispensable, these alone are insufficient.
Bacteria have become increasingly virulent and resistant to antibiotics. Unfortunately, these bacteria have also become resistant to the various disinfectants and cleaning products used in everyday hospital maintenance. Consequently, such bacteria can survive for weeks, even months in the hospital environment. To make matters worse, colonized patients (healthy carriers of the bacteria) bring these bacteria into the hospital when they are admitted.
According to Dr. Jean Vanderpas of the Epidemiology and Hygiene Unit at the Burgman Hospital in Brussels, Belgium, changes must be made to the way hospitals are designed and constructed. Research in the field of hospital architecture is currently underway. One solution is to use materials that resist and reduce the accumulation of bacteria in the hospital environment.
For example, a new type of antibacterial glass using silver has been invented. The specific product is Antibacterial Glass TM, manufactured by AGC Flat Glass Europe. Laboratory tests demonstrated that 99.9% of bacteria died on contact with the glass. Researchers hope that antibacterial glass will prove to be equally efficient in the hospital environment. |
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