Report on Nosocomial Infection: Causes, Transmission, and Control

This report provides an overview of nosocomial infections, also known as hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). It identifies the sources of infection, which include bacteria, viruses, and fungi, and differentiates between endogenous and exogenous infections. The report highlights the common types ...Read More

Running head:NOSOCOMIAL INFECTION
NOSOCOMIAL INFECTION
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NOSOCOMIAL INFECTION
Hospital-acquired infection (HAI)
is referred to as the infection that
is acquired by the person in the
hospital, outpatient clinic, nursing
homes or in any healthcare
facility. Hospital-acquired
infection is also called as
nosocomial infection. Patients,
hospital staffs and the visitors are prone to this infection. The causing agents of hospital-
acquired infection are bacteria, virus and fungi. The source of infection can be endogenous
along with exogenous. The endogenous infection is triggered by the organism that prevails as
part of the normal flora of the patient. The exogenous infection is caused by exposure to the
hospital environment through air, water, dust, disinfectants, bedpans, washbowls and
catheters. The normal exogenous infection sites can be bacteria from hospital personnel,
infected person and equipment
contamination. Types of Infection that are
associated with HAI are Urinary tract
infection, traumatic wound, Surgical
wound infection and burn Infection,
Lower respiratory infection, infection in
the central nervous system and
gastrointestinal tract. The common mode
of transmission is contact transmission aerial route, oral route, vector-borne and parenteral
route. The contact transmission can be direct-contact transmission as well as indirect contact

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transmission. Access to patient-care activities leads to direct-contact transmission and
transmission through an inanimate object like needles, contaminated gloves, dressings lead to
indirect contact transmission.
According to American Hospitals, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have calculated that
1.7 million are affected by the hospital-acquired infection.
Hospital-acquired disease causes the death of 99,000
individuals every year. The most familiar hospital-acquired
disease in the USA is urinary tract infection, and 36% of
individuals are infected with it. 20% is infected with surgical site infection and 15% s
affected with a lung infection (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020).
For prevention of HAI , methods other than
sanitation must be incorporated in the hospitals.
Sterilization of all equipments by exposure to chemicals can kill all the microorganisms.
Isolation of infected person or isolation of person with wounds can prevent the spread of

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infection. Hand washing is the most important method that can reduce the risk of transmitting
the disease. Gloves play a pivotal role in
addition to hand washing. Gloves form a
protective layer that reduces the risk of
blood-borne pathogen infection. Modern
sanitation methods include use of
hydrogen peroxide vapour, ultraviolet
cleaning device and Non-flammable
alcohol vapour in Carbon Dioxide
systems (Mehta et al., 2014). Antibiotic drugs or polymyxin-type antibacterials are used for
the treatment of hospital-acquired infection.

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Reference
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). CDC Works 24/7. Retrieved 25 February
2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/
Mehta, Y., Gupta, A., Todi, S., Myatra, S. N., Samaddar, D. P., Patil, V., ... & Ramasubban,
S. (2014). Guidelines for prevention of hospital acquired infections. Indian journal of
critical care medicine: peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of
Critical Care Medicine, 18(3), 149.