CDC: 1 out of 25 Patients Has Hospital Infection

A new study revealed that one out of 25 patients has hospital-acquired infections. This finding may help in identifying the frequency of the illness and inform the health authorities of the threats that need to be addressed.

Researchers from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) led by Shelley S. McGill, M.D., Ph.D., found out that one out of 25 patients get hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), like pneumonia. Furthermore, they discovered that Clostridium difficile is the most common infection-causing pathogen.

Clostridium difficile is a species of gram-positive spore-forming bacteria that causes antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

They surveyed 11,282 patients admitted in 183 acute care hospitals in different states and found that 452 patients had one or more HAIs. About 21.8 percent of these were pneumonia and surgical site infections, while more than 1.7 percent was gastrointestinal infections.

Among all the pathogens that caused the infections, Clostridium difficile appeared to be the most common, which infected 12.1 percent of the patients with HAIs and 70.9 percent of patients with gastrointestinal infections. The methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) followed, infecting 10.7 percent of all infected patients. Klebsiella pneumonia, which damages the lungs, and Klebsiella oxytoca, which causes sepsis, came next at 9.9 percent each, and followed by Escherichia coli (E.coli), which can cause food poisoning, at 9.3 percent.

"CDC is known for handling outbreaks, but it's even more important to be scanning the horizon for the next important threat that needs to be tackled," said Michael Bell, M.D., deputy director of the CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, to Medscape during a news conference. "Despite the progress that we've seen, three quarters of a million patients every year end up with [HAIs]."

"This is not a minor issue," he added.

Further details of this study can be read in March 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.