The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) revealed new data on the mortality from the hospital infections. According to ECDP, every year, 3.5 million Europeans suffered from an infection while in the hospital, 2.5 million of them died. The new results of research are published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
The study of ESDP shows that hospital infection takes away lives of 2.5 mln patients. In fact, infections harm at least 3.5 mln patients each year. The co-author of ECDP research Alessandro Cassini stresses:
“Hospital infections account for a significant proportion of the deaths in Europe each year, and it represents the largest effect on the European population’s health.”
The European Center is tracking a great number of diseases, its specialists note that hospital infections became more aggressive recent years. The infections have even a bigger impact than all of these combined. The studying of them is very important for prevention the disease dissemination and for reducing the number of death from the hospital infection in future.
Hospital infection: cost and impact
Chief Physician Brian Kristensen who works at the Central Unit for Infection Control at the Statens Serum Institut, was astounded by the results of ECDP’s research. According to the Danish physician, hospital infections costs more in lost years of life than flu and tuberculosis.
“It helps to underline the importance of hospital-acquired infections, which can have many different consequences. They can cause blindness or the loss of ability to drive, so it’s not only limited to something you can die from,”
says Dr Kristensen.
