Safe Care Campaign | Infection Facts

Safe Care Campaign was founded by Victoria

and Armando Nahum in 2006 after 3 different members of their family were infected in 3 different hospitals in 3 different states in just 10 months’ time.

Their son, Joshua died from an infection acquired in the hospital, but not until after bacteria in his skull caused so much pressure around his brain that it pushed part of his brain into his spinal column, making him a permanent ventilator-dependent quadriplegic.

He was 27.

Preventing

Health Care

and Community

Acquired Infections

Whether you are a caregiver, a patient or the family member of a patient and want to know how to prevent health care associated and community acquired infections, you need the important information detailed in:

INFECTIONS: FACTS

No one feels the true cost

of health care infections as much

as the patients, their families

and the caregiver staff.

Health care associated infections

affect everyone involved.

With more than 1.7 million health

care associated infections per year

in the United States, and the

problem of antibiotic-resistance

ever widening, the need for

prevention looms heavier now

more than ever before.

What is a Health Care Acquired Infection?

A nosocomial infection - also called “health care-acquired infection” can be defined as: An infection acquired in hospital by a patient who was admitted for a reason other than that infection. An infection occurring in a patient in a hospital or other health care facility in whom the infection was not present or incubating at the time of admission. This includes infections acquired in the hospital but appearing after discharge, and also occupational infections among staff of the facility.

Despite progress in public health and hospital care, infections continue to develop in hospitalized patients, and may also affect hospital staff. Many factors promote infection among hospitalized patients: decreased immunity among patients; the increasing variety of medical procedures and invasive techniques creating potential routes of infection; and the transmission of drug-resistant bacteria among crowded hospital populations, where poor infection control practices may facilitate transmission. Health care-Acquired Infections (or health care-associated infections) encompass almost all clinically evident infections that do not originate from patient's original admitting diagnosis. Within hours after admission, a patient's flora begins to acquire characteristics of the surrounding bacterial pool.

Most infections that become clinically evident after 48 hours of hospitalization are considered health care-acquired. Infections that occur after the patient's discharge from the hospital can be considered to have a nosocomial origin (originating in a hospital) if the organisms were acquired during the hospital stay.

Incidences and Rates of Occurrence

#1: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is the most common type of hospital-acquired infection and has been shown to occur after urinary atheterization. Catheterization is the placement of a catheter through the urethra into the urinary bladder to empty urine from the bladder; or to deliver medication, relieve pressure, or measure urine in the bladder; or for other medical reasons. Normally, a healthy urinary bladder is sterile, with no harmful bacteria or other microorganisms present.

Although bacteria may be in or around the urethra, they normally cannot enter the bladder. A catheter, however, can pick up bacteria from the urethra and give them an easy route into the bladder, causing infection. Bacteria from the intestinal tract are the most common type to cause UTIs. Patients with poorly functioning immune systems or who are taking antibiotics are also at increased risk for UTI caused by a fungus called Candida. The prolonged use of antibiotics, which may reduce the effectiveness of the patient's own immune system, has been shown to create favorable conditions for the growth of this fungal organism.

#2: Pneumonia is the second most common type of hospital-acquired infection. Bacteria and other microorganisms are easily introduced into the throat by treatment procedures performed to treat respiratory illnesses. Patients with chronic obstructive lung disease, for example, are especially susceptible to infection because of frequent and prolonged antibiotic therapy and long-term mechanical ventilation used in their treatment. The infecting microorganisms can come from contaminated equipment or the hands of health care workers as procedures are conducted such as respiratory intubation, suctioning of material from the throat and mouth, and mechanical ventilation. Once introduced through the nose and mouth, microorganisms quickly colonize the throat area. This means that they grow and form a colony, but have not yet caused an infection. Once the throat is colonized, it is easy for a patient to aspirate the microorganisms into the lungs, where infection develops that leads to pneumonia.

The most frequently occurring infections that come from within a health care environment are:

Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia,

Surgical Site Infections,

Urinary Tract Infections,

Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections.

Nosocomial etiologies in Bloodstream Infections include the following:

Coagulase-negative staphylococci, Enterococci, Fungi, Staphylococcus aureus,

Enterobacter species, Pseudomonads, Acinetobacter baumannii with substantial

antimicrobial resistance reported with increasing frequency.

Nosocomial etiologies in UTI include the following:

Gram-negative enterics, Fungi, Enterococci.

Nosocomial etiologies in Surgical Site infections include the following: