2023-09-25 04:00:07
Nosocomial infections represent a significant health threat. This is particularly the case for those caused by CDI, a bacteria otherwise called “Clostridioides difficile” causing significant intestinal problems. A recent study reveals that the main cause of these infections could actually come from the patient himself.
Image d’illustration Pixabay
Many resources are already devoted to protecting patients against nosocomial infections. This ranges from hand hygiene of hospital staff to environmental sanitation for example. Despite this, the number (The notion of number in linguistics is covered in the article “Number…) of infected patients is still very large. We informed you a few days ago (The day or day is the interval which separates sunrise from sunset; it is the…) in this article of a new process allowing you to destroy these bacteria. A new study now tells us that these infections, which were thought to spread from patient to patient, could actually come from the patient themselves.
To arrive at this assertion, researchers from the University of Michigan and Rush University Medical Center carried out a study consisting of analyzing fecal samples from each patient in the intensive care unit for 9 months (The month (From lat. mensis “month”, and formerly in plural “menses”) is a period of time…). Among the 1100 patients participating in the study, 9% were infected with ICD bacteria during their hospitalization. The researchers compared the sequencing of the genome of 425 strains of this bacteria, with the strains observed in the nearly 4,000 fecal samples collected, and were thus able to analyze their propagation.
They were thus able to observe that very few strains were similar between the patients and that ultimately, this bacteria was not transmitted between them (only 6 transmissions between patients were confirmed over the period). In reality, this bacteria was already present in the patients’ intestines beforehand, but the researchers do not explain why the infection occurred. The challenge now is to identify ways to prevent patients from developing this infection in the event of tube feeding (A space probe is an unmanned vessel sent by humans to explore more closely…) or administration of antibiotics for example.
This conclusion does not mean, however, that the health measures implemented in hospitals are useless. On the contrary, they are essential to keep the transmission rate low. Additional research will still be necessary to understand how patients are colonized and thus prevent their infection.
1695617839
#nosocomial #infections #patient