Hospital Acquired Infections Causes and Prevention –

About 5-10% of patients develop HAl Hospital Acquired Infections or nosocomial infections.  Hospital acquired infections are difficult to treat,cause epidemic problems,  costly, have high morbidity, are preventable., There is a high incidence of nosocomial infections in patients on ventilators.

Hospital Acquired Infections Causes and Prevention

Hospital Acquired Infections Defenition —

• Hospital acquired infection (HAl) is defined as in­fection which occurs after admission and which was not incubating at the time of admission.
• Hospital acquired infections are difficult to treat, costly, have high morbidity, cause epidemic problems, are preventable.
• About 5-10% of patients develop HAl or nosocomial infections. There is a high incidence of nosocomial infections in patients on ventilators.

Sources of Hospital Acquired Infections

Causes of Hospital Acquired Infections

• · Immunocompromised patients
• · Antibiotic resistant bacteria
• · Fungal and viral super infections
• · Invasive devices
• · Invasive procedures.

Prevention of HAl [Hospital Acquired Infections]

• Hand hygiene Isolation precautions Training of personnel
• Invasive devices only when needed Invasive devices removed when not needed Antimicrobials – Restricted use
• Only specific appropriate antibiotic given Antibiotic discontinued timely
• Control of tuberculosis
• Study of hospital blood borne pathogens Infected patients segregated
• Surgical wounds discussed with experts.

NOSOCOMIAL INFECTIONS Urinary Tract Infections:

• · Prevention – Catheters used when necessary.
• · Aseptic techniques for catheter insertion.
• · Remove catheters as soon as possible.
• · Common organisms are E.coli, candida, enterococci, gram negative bacilli, Staph aureus.

Hospital Acquired Infections Pneumonia:

• · Occurs due to aspiration.
• · Organisms are Strepto pneumoniae, Staph aureus, Hemophilus, Enterobacter, Pseudomo­nas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae.
• · Prevention – prevent aspiration.
• · Aseptic care of nebulizers, breathing circuit.
• · Aseptic suctioning, systemic antibiotics.

Infections due to Vascular access and Monitor­ing:

• · Prevention – Maximum sterile barrier precautions during insertion.
• · Avoid femoral site for catheterization.
• · Move the peripheral catheters to new sites ev­ery 72 hours.
• · Transparent dressings.
• · Organisms are – Staph aureus, Enterococci,
• Gram negative bacilli, Candida.

Infections due to Legionella :

• Legionella pneumonia is due to contamination of po­table water especially in immunocompromized pa­tients.