Around 70% of healthcare-associated infections worldwide can be avoided through prevention, the World Health Organization (WHO) argued on Friday on the occasion of World Hand Hygiene Day.
“The Covid-19 pandemic and other major recent outbreaks have shown how healthcare facilities can contribute to the spread of infections, harming patients, healthcare workers and visitors, unless given due consideration. insufficient attention to infection prevention and control, WHO warned in the World Report on Infection Prevention and Control.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed many infection prevention and control (IPC) challenges and gaps in all regions and countries, including those with the most advanced programs,” he said. WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted in a statement as saying.
“It also provided an unprecedented opportunity to take stock of the situation and rapidly scale up epidemic preparedness and response through IPC practices, as well as to strengthen these programs across the health system,” developed Dr. Tedros, calling for “ensuring that all countries are able to allocate the necessary human resources, supplies and infrastructure for this purpose”.
“Today, out of 100 patients hospitalized in acute care facilities, seven patients in high-income countries and 15 patients in low- and middle-income countries acquire at least one healthcare-associated infection during their hospital stay. ‘hospital. On average, one in ten patients dies as a result of this infection,” highlighted the WHO.
People in intensive care and newborns are particularly at risk, reports the World report on infection prevention and control, which brings together elements drawn from the scientific literature and various reports, as well as new data from WHO studies.
Also, about one in four cases of sepsis treated in hospital and nearly half of the cases of sepsis with organ dysfunction treated in adult intensive care units are associated with health care, notes the same source.
The new WHO report provides the first-ever global situational analysis of how infection control and prevention programs are being implemented in countries around the world, including at regional and national levels.
While highlighting the harm to patients and healthcare workers from healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance, the report also discusses the impact and cost-effectiveness of infection prevention and control programs, as well as as the strategies and resources available to countries to improve them.
With MAP