Hospital Acquired Infections: The Stats

Of every 100 hospitalized patients 7 in developed country and about 10 in developing country will contract a hospital acquired infection. 30% of ICU patient are affected by at least one hospital acquired infection a year. (high income countries) Rates of hospital acquired infection are 2-3 times higher in low to middle income countries than in high income countries. Device-associated infection densities are up to 13 times higher than in the USA. Newborns are likely to contract a hospital acquired infection in low income countries than in developed countries. With an infection rate 3-20 times higher than in developed countries.

Prevalence and Incidence in high income countries 3.5% and 12% in developed countries According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: The prevalence is 7.1% in European countries The center reports than approximately 4 131 000 patients are affected by about 4 544 100 incidents of hospital acquired infections a year. A European multicentre study reported that:s Infection rate for ICU patients is as high as 51% 30% of all patients in the ICU will get at least one hospital acquired infection The incidence rate of infection in adult patients 17.0 episodes per 1000 patient-days

The incident rate in the USA was 4.5% in 2002. This means that there is a rate of 9.3 infections per 1000 patient-days. This leads to about 1.7 million affected individuals a year.

Prevalence and Incidence in low to middle income countries Infection rate varies between 5.7% and 19.1% Infection rate for ICU patients is between 4.4% and 88.9% The frequency of overall infections is as high as 42.7 episodes per 1000 patient-days. This is 3 times higher than in developed countries

Infections associated with invasive devices are 19 times higher than those reported from Germany and the USA. Newborns born in developing countries are 3-20 times more likely to develop a hospital infection than their counterparts in developed countries. Hospital acquired infections are responsible for 4% to56% of all causes of death in the neonatal period, and 75% in South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Cost of hospital acquired infection 7 billion in Europe, including direct costs only and reflecting 16 million extra days of hospital stay, and at about US$ 6.5 billion in the USA. In Brazil the estimated cost of hospital acquired infection was approximately US $ 18 million in 1992. In Mexico the estimated cost of one episode of hospital acquired infection in an ICU unit was US$ 12 155. In several ICUs in Argentina, the overall extra-cost estimates for catheter-related bloodstream infection and hospital acquired pneumonia averaged US$ 4 888 and US$ 2 255 per case, respectively. Additional Stats According to WHO approximately 1.4 million people worldwide are affected by infections acquired in hospitals The CDC reports 1.7 million healthcare-associated infections occur annually in hospitals in the United States, and are associated with nearly 100,000 deaths each year Hospital acquired infections account for 37 000 attributable deaths in Europe and 99 000 deaths in the USA. (WHO)

References

Clean Hospitals - cleaning, sterilization, Infection control, disinfection, decontamination, and hand hygiene.. (n.d.). Clean Hospitals - cleaning, sterilization, Infection control, disinfection, decontamination, and hand hygiene.. Retrieved March 12, 2013, from http://www.cleanhospitals.net/page/page/6855898.htm

Health care-associated infections. (n.d.). World Health Organization . Retrieved February 28, 2012, from http://www.who.int/gpsc/country_work/gpsc_ccisc_fact_sheet_en.pdf