Concerns about infection in medical facilities

As a special-class central general hospital of the Ministry of Health and the southernmost line, Cho Ray Hospital regularly receives severe cases, especially drug-resistant and multidrug-resistant cases transferred from the community and lower-level hospitals. Here, on average, each month there are 480 cases of difficult-to-treat multidrug-resistant Gr(-) infections and about 200 cases of drug-resistant Gr(+) infections, mainly caused by community-acquired infections. However, in addition to infections from the community and lower-level hospitals, Cho Ray Hospital also identifies patients at risk of infection right at the hospital.

Therefore, the issue of infection control has been focused on by Cho Ray Hospital for many years. Since 2018, the hospital has implemented many proactive solutions to prevent infections and multi-drug resistant infections, such as requiring medical staff to comply with standard hand hygiene prevention principles; medical staff caring for patients in the resuscitation room must wear aprons... Starting from 2022, the hospital will focus on cleaning the environment of patient rooms and medical equipment, and at the same time develop and promulgate a process for cleaning the surface environment to control cross-infection, ensuring the quality of the treatment environment.

Not only Cho Ray Hospital, but other medical examination and treatment facilities across the country are also making every effort within their capacity to control infections. However, with cramped infrastructure and patient overload like in our country, maintaining a safe distance between hospital beds or arranging medical staff to take care of infected patients is very difficult. Therefore, the risk of cross-infection in medical examination and treatment facilities is always high, leading to increased mortality rates, reduced treatment effectiveness, prolonged treatment time, increased health care costs, as well as increasing the risk of spreading multidrug-resistant infections in hospitals and the community.

Many challenges in infection control and prevention

Given the above situation, infection control to ensure the response capacity of the health system has become an urgent task. This is also the viewpoint emphasized by Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health at the online conference to deploy the national action plan on infection control in medical examination and treatment facilities for the period 2025 - 2030 on April 10 at the Ministry of Health.

According to information from the Conference, global statistics conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2022 showed that out of 100 patients in acute care hospitals, 7 patients in high-income countries and 15 patients in low- and middle-income countries had at least one hospital infection during their hospital stay. On average, 1 in 10 affected patients will die from a hospital infection. In particular, every year, there are about 136 million cases of hospital-acquired infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It is predicted that by 2050, nearly 3.5 million people may die from hospital-acquired infections each year, 4.4 times more than HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases combined.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister Tran Van Thuan said that infection control is one of the important pillars in ensuring patient safety, quality of medical services and the health system's response capacity to infectious diseases. The Covid-19 pandemic has affirmed the indispensable role of this work, not only in disease prevention and control but also in protecting medical staff and the community.

The health sector is still facing many difficulties: the difference in resources and capacity between levels of medical examination and treatment; lack of infrastructure, equipment, and materials for infection control; limited awareness of compliance with procedures by a part of medical staff, patients, and their families; especially, the situation of antibiotic resistance and the threat of multi-drug resistant bacteria are increasing and the appearance of new and re-emerging epidemics.

On that basis, the Ministry of Health has developed and issued the National Action Plan on Infection Control for the period 2025 - 2030. "This is an important and strategic document, aiming to synchronize infection control activities nationwide, in line with the strategy to improve the quality of health services and WHO recommendations. This will be an important "guideline" for medical examination and treatment units and facilities nationwide to systematically, synchronously and effectively implement infection control work" - Deputy Minister Tran Van Thuan emphasized.

Ganoderma

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/bao-dam-nang-luc-ung-pho-cua-he-thong-y-te-kiem-soat-nhiem-khuan-luon-la-van-de-nong-post545405.html