Three million Europeans catch infections in hospital annually
On any given day, some 80,000 patients in Europe are fighting an infection they picked up in hospital, often while in intensive care, the EU’s disease monitoring agency said in a survey published on Thursday.
Although some of these infections can be treated easily, others - like the superbug MRSA and other drug-resistant bugs - can be fatal or affect patients’ health very seriously, taking several months of costly hospital care and medication to beat.
A survey by the European Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control (ECDC) found that on any given day, one in 18 patients in European hospitals has at least one hospital-acquired infection - amounting to around 3.2 million patients per year.
“Healthcare-associated infections pose a major public health problem and a threat to European patients,” said Marc Sprenger, director of the Stockholm-based ECDC.
He said many of these infections could be prevented by well thought-out, sustained and multi-pronged prevention and control programs and he urged hospitals to step up the fight.
“Such programs, as well as prudent use of antibiotics, will help all actors involved to protect the patients of European hospitals,” he said in a statement.
The ECDC warned last year that doctors are increasingly having to turn to last-ditch antibiotics due to growing drug-resistant superbug infections in Europe - many of them acquired in hospitals.
Types of infections
The most common types of infection acquired in hospitals are:
Urinary tract infections (UTI)
Wound infection
Pneumonia (lung infection)
Bloodstream infection.
Infections are treated with antibiotics and usually respond well. Occasionally, infections can be serious and life threatening. Some bacteria are hard to treat because they are resistant to standard antibiotics. These bacteria are sometimes called ‘superbugs’. Two examples of superbugs are:
Staphylococcus aureus - often called ‘golden staph’ or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Resistant Enterococcus - also referred to as vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).
Controlling infection
Spread of infection can be controlled and reduced by:
Strict hospital infection control procedures and policies
Correct and frequent hand washing by all hospital staff and patients
Cautious use of antibiotic medication.
How to reduce your risk
If you are going to hospital, there are things you can do before admission and in hospital that will help reduce the chance of you getting an infection.
Before admission
Follow these steps before you go to hospital:
Stop smoking - smoking can interfere with healing processes. It also damages the airways, which can make lung infections more likely.
Maintain a healthy weight - people who are overweight are more prone to infection.
Inform your doctor of all existing or recent illness - a cold or the flu can lead to a chest infection, so let your doctor or the hospital staff know if you are not well.
Manage diabetes - if you are a diabetic, make sure that your blood sugar levels are under control.
The latest survey, which covered 1,000 hospitals in 30 European countries, found the highest rates of hospital-acquired infections were among patients admitted to intensive care units, where 19.5 percent of patients had at least one bug they had picked up from the hospital.
“SUPERBUGS”
The most common types of infection are respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and infections of the bloodstream. These are often caused by Klebsiella pneumonia and E. coli bacteria, both of which have shown an ability to develop resistance to some of the most powerful antibiotics.
Among a total 15,000 reported healthcare-associated infections, surgical site infections and urinary tract infections are also common. Many of the infections are also found to be drug-resistant “superbugs”, the survey showed.
Among all infections with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in which full testing was carried out, more than 40 percent were reported as resistant to methicillin - in other words they were MRSA infections, the ECDC said.
Other risk factors
There are other risk factors that may increase your likelihood of acquiring HAI ( hospital-acquired infections). These include:
Length of stay - a long hospital stay can increase the risk: for example, admission for complex or multiple illnesses.
Operations and surgical procedures - the length and type of surgery can also impact.
Hand washing techniques - inadequate hand washing by hospital staff and patients may increase your risk.
Antibiotics - overuse of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacteria, which means that antibiotics become less effective.
Equipment - invasive procedures can introduce infection into the body: for example, procedures that require the use of equipment such as urinary catheters, IV drips and infusions, respiratory equipment and drain tubes.
Wounds - wounds, incisions (surgical cuts), burns and ulcers are all prone to infection.
High-risk areas - some areas of the hospital are more likely to have infection, such as intensive care units (ICU) and high dependency units (HDU).
Worldwide, MRSA infects an estimated 53 million people annually and costs more than $20 billion a year to treat. It kills around 20,000 people a year in the United States and a similar number in Europe.
EU health and consumer affairs commissioner Paola Testori Coggi said the findings of the European survey were “worrying” and urged health authorities to do more to protect patients in hospital and to step up the fight against antibiotic resistance.
Drug resistance is driven by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, which encourages bacteria to develop new ways of overcoming them.
Experts say hospitals are often guilty of overusing antibiotics, giving them as “blanket” treatments before full testing has established which drugs are really needed.
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By Kate Kelland