In February this year, hospital staff at the Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem informed some of their patients that the hospital may have exposed them to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare but incurable disease. Again in March, the South Nassau Communities Hospital on Long Island, New York informed more than 4,000 of its patients that there may be chances that they may have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis.
These incidences, though scary, is unfortunately not as uncommon as they seem. Patients who go to hospitals to get treated get infected with illnesses that sometimes cost them their lives and the reality of this risk is underscored by a new study of researchers of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that claims about one in 25 patients in the U.S. acquire an infection in the hospital.
Findings of the study were based on data gathered by a survey of 183 hospitals in 2011, which was discussed in "Multistate Point-Prevalence Survey of Health Care-Associated Infections" published in the New England Journal of Medicine March 27.
The researchers found that 648,000 hospital patients contracted about 721,800 infections during their stay at the hospital in 2011 with as many as 75,000 patients dying of these infections.
Pneumonia and surgical site infections account for the highest of incidences of these healthcare-associated infections followed by gastrointestinal infections, urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections.
"In summary, our survey results indicate that on any given day approximately 1 of every 25 inpatients in U.S. acute care hospitals has at least one health care-associated infection," the researchers wrote. "Infections other than those associated with central catheters, urinary catheters, and ventilators account for the majority of the U.S. burden of health care-associated infections and may warrant increased attention."
CDC Director Tom Frieden said that many patients will die of hospital infections but nonetheless pointed out that health care service providers have crucial role in preventing this to happen.
"Although there has been some progress, today and every day more than 200 Americans with healthcare-associated infections will die during their hospital stay," said Frieden. "The most advanced medical care won't work if clinicians don't prevent infections through basic things such as regular hand hygiene."
