Trends in rates of Healthcare Associated Infection in England 2004 to 2008 Background

Healthcare associated infections (HCAI) are often caused by micro-organisms that are not transmissible in the classical sense but which take advantage of breaches in the hosts defences against infection (e.g. bowel flora causing wound infection after surgery, skin organisms causing bloodstream infection via a vascular device). Microorganisms that cause HCAI may be derived from the patients’ own flora or may have been acquired from other patients, the environment or staff through contact with people or equipment, or more rarely via the air. The factors that contribute to the acquisition of HCAI are therefore complex and their prevention depends on a range of infection control procedures. For example, preventing a patient becoming colonised with meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is dependant on hand hygiene being performed between patient contacts, however, preventing the patient subsequently developing a surgical wound infection caused by MRSA depends on appropriate antimicrobial prophylaxis, good surgical technique, a high standard of infection control during surgery and effective protection of the wound from contamination post-surgery.