Good hand hygiene and other cost-effective infection prevention and control (IPC) practices can eliminate between 35% and 70% of healthcare-setting infections in all countries regardless of economic status, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.
IPC uses a practical, evidence-based approach to help patients, healthcare workers, and visitors to healthcare facilities avoid harmful infections, which can range from infections caused by localized antibiotic-resistant bacteria to pandemic viruses. The WHO calls the report the first global analysis of IPC implementation.
Dr Daniel Diekema
"Hospitals across the world saw increased rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included SARS-CoV-2 infections and other HAIs that increased as our healthcare systems were stretched to the breaking point and fewer resources were available for HAI prevention," Daniel Diekema, MD, who was not involved in the report, told Medscape Medical News in an email.
"As we enter the third year of the pandemic, this WHO report should serve as an urgent call to action," Diekema, a clinical professor of internal medicine at University of Iowa Health Care and an associate hospital epidemiologist with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, in Iowa City, noted. "Investing more resources in IPC programs will not only improve pandemic response, it will reduce morbidity, mortality, and global costs from all HAIs."
