Problematic Hand Sanitation Can Lead to Healthcare-Acquired Infection

In the United States, healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) afflict more than 3 million people every year. Approximately 8 percent of hospital patients acquire life-threatening infections during their stay. HAIs directly cause about 100,000 deaths annually and that number is growing rapidly due to new antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Treatment of HAIs extends patient stays an average of 21 days. The estimated direct cost to the 6,000 registered hospitals for HAI treatment is more than $5 billion, and the total estimated cost to society is as much as $30 billion.¹ The infection problem is not limited to the U.S.; all developed nations suffer from similar HAI statistics. The total number of deaths worldwide rivals those from malaria. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially characterize the enormity of the HAI problem as epidemic.²

The key underlying reason for such an enormous problem is the pathogen transmission cycle. This dynamic enables germs from the patient’s contaminated surroundings to be transported back and forth between all surfaces, including the patients themselves, and the healthcare workers (HCWs) who are treating them.³

The primary function of infection prevention solutions and practice is to break this transmission cycle, severing the pathways with speed and broad-spectrum efficacy. It is this inactivation⁴ or destruction of dangerous pathogens that prevents HAIs and related diseases. However, current infection prevention solutions are widely considered deficient or inadequate by a growing cadre of activists in the legal, insurance and consumer advocacy industries.⁵ The bottom line claim is that the transmission cycle still remains fully intact, and a lack of an effective and vigilant disruption of the cycle is a direct cause of the staggering and alarming aforementioned HAI statistics.