Monitoring of the hospital environment and costs attributable to Health Care-Associated Infections A Systematic Review

Abstract

Health Care Associated Infections (HAI), according to the WHO, are defined as infections contracted by a patient during treatment in a hospital or other health center and where said patient was not in the incubation period at the time of admission. Currently, they represent a highly relevant problem in Public Health, they entail high hospital mortality and morbidity rates, in addition to presenting great economic and social significance since they affect the years of life potentially lost in the population. Neonates are susceptible to IAAS and represent a greater care burden compared to other populations. The hospital environment constitutes a reservoir and a source of infection for the hospitalized patient, microorganisms that contaminate a surface can survive for days, so environmental microbiological monitoring provides retrospective information on the effectiveness of safety barriers, cleaning and disinfection processes of areas and could even evaluate people before the appearance of a series of microorganisms that increase the risk of IAAS.