Hospital-acquired infections: A rising public health problem in Cameroon

Cases of patients dying in hospitals, not from the illnesses that took them to the health facilities, but rather from an ailment they picked up during their stay in the structures are becoming common. Medical personnel and visitors are also exposed to such infections caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi or other agents that loom in health care structures. With a prevalence rate of 10 to 20 per cent, hospital-acquired infections in Cameroon, call them nosocomial infections, have become preoccupying. They constitute a rising public health problem, wherefore the holding of a medical conference in Yaounde on the issue last week.

This distress cry was long overdue. For, how would such infections not be common when the hygienic condition in most health facilities is sloppy? How can this not be possible when the nauseating “hospital smell” is omnipresent in most health care strctures? How would this not be possible when some health personnel fail to observe basic hygienic roles such as washing their hands when they move from one patient to another or after touching body fluids, secretions and contaminated items? And how would this not be possible when patients are examined with the same equipments without prior cleaning? And, how would this not be possible when ants, flies, cockroaches, rats and other vectors of diseases, play freely in hospital wards and surroundings?

So, are we doomed? Are we condemned to live with such infections forever? Definitely not. There is hope. Although the risk of contracting a disease in the hospital milieu cannot be completely wiped out, it can be reduced. Studies hold that approximately one third of nosocomial infections, which are generally difficult to treat, are preventable. The solution lies in the hands of health practitioners and hospital managers. Generally, it’s a problem of hygiene. In effect, most of the germs are transmitted by hands that have come into contact with patients, items or surfaces contaminated with body fluids containing the bacteria. Wherefore the need for health care providers to adopt risk-free attitudes. Isn’t it said that “cleanliness is next to godliness”?

The wearing of gloves, masks and gowns, washing of hands, appropriate handling of laundry and other hospital accessories is important. In the same light, the hospital surroundings should be kept clean. Old and dirty buildings with dust and debris that can cause fungi and other infections should be renovated, while the floor should be cleaned as often as need be.

This demands better professionalism on the part of the health care providers, more follow-up of the sanitation conditions by the hospital managers and above all, the proper handling of patients. For, it is deplorable that, out of negligence, those in hospital grounds should be unduly exposed to infections.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune