They are among the most dangerous pathogens: hospital bacteria. Every year in Austria, 4500 to 5000 patients die from this bacterial infection. Yet it would be so easy to avoid.
Today we celebrate the World Day of Hand hygiene – the time to draw attention to the great importance of hand disinfection. If done correctly, many infections can be avoided. This can prevent many deaths in the hospital.
According to the Semmelweis Gesellschaft, the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria means that many of these infections can no longer be adequately treated.
Every year 95,000 people are infected
It is estimated that 95,000 patients in Austria become infected each year during diagnostic or therapeutic measures in healthcare facilities, some of them with pathogens that are difficult to treat and often multidrug-resistant. Causes are often poor hygiene or non-compliance with preventive measures due to organizational or constructional circumstances. Each year, approximately 4,500 to 5,000 of these so-called nosocomial infections lead to death.
There are no concrete figures, since the documentation of these infections is not mandatory, which, according to Semmelweis Gesellschaft, should be. The experts are also calling for nationally uniform hand hygiene standards. “Hand hygiene to contain infections with hospital bacteria should not remain a matter for the federal states. We demand uniform and binding quality standards for hygiene throughout Austria,” emphasizes Culen.
Semmelwei’s company
The Semmelweis Gesellschaft is a non-profit association in Vienna whose mission is to raise public awareness of the need for properly applied hospital hygiene. namesake is Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865), Viennese surgeon and obstetrician, founder of evidence-based medicine and “inventor” of hand hygiene.
Source: Krone
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