Nosocomial Infection

Introduction:

Infection control and prevention is one of the most important issues in hospital practice today, especially with the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria In USA, approximately 99,000 deaths occur per year with hospital acquired infections and in France, the prevalence of hospital acquired infections was 6.87% in 2001 and 7.5% in 2006.In Italy in 2000’s, about 6.7 of hospitalized patients was infected. The overall nosocomial infection rate at Saudi Arabian Military hospital was 4.98 per 100 discharged patients. After construction of an infection control unit, Research Institute in Egypt conducted a surveillance program in a period from September to December 2001and the same periods in 2004 found that the overall nosocomial

Most hospital acquired infections are obvious 48 hours or more following admission (typical incubation period). Also infection can be present after patient discharge as the patient colonized or infected whilehe is in hospital, but the pathogen incubation period exceeds the patient's hospital stay. For example, several studies report that over 50% of surgical site infections (SSI) were discoverd after discharge. Nosocomial comes from Greek word nosokomeon meaning hospital (noso = disease, komeo = to take care

- The contaminated personal protective equipment should be discarded in appropriate disposal containers, and get red them as the policy of the hospital.

- Sharing personal protective equipment on dealing with patients should be avoided.

- Personal protective equipment should be changed completely and hands should be washed after leaving a patient to care another patient or to do another duty.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):

1-Gloves:

Gloves can protect bothpatients andhealthcare workers from exposure to infectiousagentsthat may be carriedbyhands Gloves is a component of standard isolation precautions, they are used to prevent contamination of healthcare workers’ hands when:

- There is directcontact with mucous membranes, non-intact skin, blood or body substances and other potentially infectious material.

- Touching visiblyor potentially contaminated patient-care equipment and environmental surfaces

-Types and uses of gloves: There are three types of gloves used in healthcare facilities:

1-Sterile gloves

2-Non sterile gloves

3-Utility or heavy-duty household