Infection control in countries with limited resources

Abstract

Infection control (IC) in countries with limited resources potentially affects healthcare in all countries; infectious diseases have spread around the globe very efficiently but infection prevention has lagged behind. Control of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is one of the great successes: it reduces illness and mortality and saves money for patients and hospitals. Yet, today only 57 of 192 countries have national IC societies and there is still no global planning for managing this plague which is largely preventable, and which spawns a host of related problems including multidrugresistant organisms and bloodborne infections among patients and healthcare workers (HCWs). In fact, infection problems continue to be amplified in hospitals rather than reduced. For example, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) began as a community-acquired, severe respiratory disease but ultimately, almost half of cases were due to hospital transmission. [Excerpt]