Health care-associated infections – an overview

Abstract

Health care-associated infections (HCAIs) are infections that occur while receiving health care, developed in a hospital or other health care facility that first appear 48 hours or more after hospital admission, or within 30 days after having received health care. Multiple studies indicate that the common types of adverse events affecting hospitalized patients are adverse drug events, HCAIs, and surgical complications. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention identifies that nearly 1.7 million hospitalized patients annually acquire HCAIs while being treated for other health issues and that more than 98,000 patients (one in 17) die due to these. Several studies suggest that simple infection-control procedures such as cleaning hands with an alcohol-based hand rub can help prevent HCAIs and save lives, reduce morbidity, and minimize health care costs. Routine educational interventions for health care professionals can help change their hand-washing practices to prevent the spread of infection. In support of this, the WHO has produced guidelines to promote hand-washing practices among member countries.

Vulnerability of the industrialized microbiota

“…Health care-associated infections are pervasive in both high-and low-income countries and are a leading cause of death in the United States (91). Germicidal treatments of hospital surfaces are not completely effective, leaving behind dangerous pathogens, some of which can inhabit surfaces for months and also lead to increasing antibiotic resistance.…”

Bacteriophages for Chronic Wound Treatment: From Traditional to Novel Delivery Systems

“…This opportunistic pathogen causes infections, mainly in the elderly and immunocompromised individuals [32,33]. Wound contamination can also occur through cross-infection events, such as poor hand hygiene practiced by healthcare clinicians after wound cleansing and dressing procedures, coughing and sneezing, dirty bedding, unsterilized medical equipment, and prolonged use of catheters, tubes, or intravenous lines [34][35][36][37][38]. Wound contaminants can also derive from the environment.…”

A proposal for a comprehensive approach to infections across the surgical pathway

“…These infections result in significant patient illnesses and deaths, prolong the duration of hospital stay, and necessitate additional diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, which generate supplementary costs to those already sustained due to the patient's underlying disease. However, the phenomenon is not yet sufficiently perceived among both healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients, thus resulting in a low level of intervention request and relative inadequate responses [2]. Although HAIs are the most frequent adverse events in healthcare, their true global burden remains unknown because of the difficulty in gathering reliable data: most countries lack surveillance systems for HAIs, and those do have them struggle with the complexity and the lack of uniformity of criteria [3].…”