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The Cost of Hospital-Acquired Infections is Significant

The human and financial cost of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is unacceptable. According to a report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, these infections account for approximately € 7 billion per year in Europe, considering direct costs only. Other figures demonstrate the magnitude of the problem: more than 4 million people acquire an HAI every year and 37,000 deaths occur from these infections in Europe. Different decontaminations systems -more or less sophisticated- are used to address this question. But in the current situation, it is still not unusual that hospitals are obliged to close operating rooms or even complete floors during weeks in order to conduct costly decontaminations operations. Yet, a simple hygiene measure -thorough hand washing- could prevent the spread of a large number of infections. Indeed, it is estimated that nearly 80% of all infections are transmitted by hands. Of course, hospital staff including physicians are the first to recognize the importance of respecting these basic hygienic measures. However, sometimes under pressure due to the restricted time frame and also to a lack of staff, these very simple preventive hygienic measures are forgotten all to the detriment of sick persons. That is why more than 1 hospital patient in 20 get infected. And it is obviously far too high. Therefore, it becomes now vital that we deal seriously with this critical matter.

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