Infection Control Programme to Reduce the Number of Nosocomial Organism Causing Infection

Abstract

Nosocomial or hospital acquired infections are acquired by the patients during hospital stay. Bacteria were found to be responsible for the majority of infections followed by fungi, viruses, and protozoa. Literature has demonstrated that hospitals with infection control guidelines help reduce infection rates. We therefore isolated and compared common nosocomial organisms causing infections previous to and after the implementation of infection control measures to control healthcare-associated infections in our hospital setting. Strategy for infection control in our hospital setting was devised in the year 2010. These guidelines were frequently revised to improve the compliance of infection control measures. Infection control nurse helped record all the positive cultures in a surveillance format. This data on the number of isolates recovered from the cultures was documented and compared each year to check for the compliance of the infection control guidelines to reduce microbial isolates causing infections. Of the recovered 866 isolates from microbial cultures known to be causing nosocomial infections, 77.7% were gram-negative bacteria, 13.2% were gram-positive bacteria and 9% were fungi. A decrease in the number of microbes causing infections was observed after the implementation of infection control measures, with only 3.4% of the gram-positive microbes, 9.6% of the gram-negative microbes and 3.8% of the fungi being identified in the year 2017. Our study demonstrated that effectively devised infection control measures help reduce the number of organisms causing nosocomial infections further resulting in decreased infection rate.

Keywords

• nosocomial infections
• health issues
• infection control
• bacteria
• hospital stay.