The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released new survey data stating around 30 percent of critically ill patients cared for in intensive care units will contract a healthcare-associated infection. According to the findings, the number of those infections resistant to antibiotic treatment is on the rise.

With at least seven out of every 100 patients admitted to a hospital in high-income countries acquiring an infection, and ten percent of those in low-to-middle-income countries, the WHO is emphasising the importance of good hand hygiene and is urging health workers to adhere to standards when caring for patients.

Reducing the increasing challenge of drug-resistant infections is vital, as the WHO’s findings confirmed the very common drug resistance in bacteria found exclusively in healthcare facilities to be extremely high. For the deadly MRSA bacteria Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, this percentage is at 44 percent in Latin America, 40 percent West African countries and 38 percent in Europe.

Commenting on the data released Professor Benedetta Allegranzi, technical lead of the WHO Clean Care is Safer Care program, stated that there was clear scientific evidence pointing towards the benefits of good hand hygiene. She confirmed that health workers could actively reduce healthcare-associated infections caused by resistant germs, and MRSA in particular.
 

7 May 2014

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ICU, Disinfection, WHO, Critical Care, hygiene, infection control The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released new survey data stating around 30 percent of critically ill patients cared for in intensive care u...