The governments of developing countries should come up with a national policy to prevent nosocomial infections, with measures like surveillance, identification of high-risk patients and decontamination of the hospital environment to minimise hospital infections, according to Dr Victor Rosenthal, the head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control at Bernal Medical Center And Colegiales Medical Center (Argentina) and advisor to the Governments of Argentina, Columbia and Mexico on infectious diseases.

In an exclusive talk with Pharmabiz in Chennai recently, Dr Victor Rosenthal said the burden on the national healthcare expenditure of various nations were very high due to the infections caused at hospitals. It is estimated that this amount varies from about US $ 30,000 to 60,000 per patient in US, $ 15,000 to 20,000 in Argentina, $12,000 in Mexico and $ 20,000 in Italy. US is probably the only country with a national guideline and policy for surveillance and infection control due to its National Nosocomial Infection System (NNIS).

With this in mind, he has devised an International Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System (INISS), by which the rate of infection in hospitals could be calculated and requisite remedial measures could be taken for reducing the infections. Thanks to this, about 100 hospitals in 28 cities in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Germany, UK, US, Canada, Chile, Italy etc have implemented effective programmes for surveillance and infection control, he added.

On average about 1 in 10 patients acquire infection as a direct outcome of hospitalisation. More than 80 per cent of the nosocomial infections are caused due to microbial flora brought in by the patients to the hospitals. Hospital environment and contamination of equipments like central vascular catheter, mechanical ventilator, urinary catheter etc cause for the infection at hospital, which could be controlled through proper surveillance and professional management. About 5 to 10 per cent of the hospital mortalities are a direct result of nosocomial infections, he opined.

In some cases, infection would be visible only after the patient is discharged from the hospital. Measures like hand washing with antiseptics, vascular catheres using asceptic techniques, close drain system, removing hair with electric clipper instead of razors etc. are some of the minute but important techniques to minimize hospital infection, said Dr Victor Rosenthal, who is also the Editor of the Guidelines to Prevent the Nosocomial Infections for Columbia, Argentina and Mexico.