Mexico City.- In one year, hospital acquired infections increased 39 percent in the country.
The increase may be due to the relaxation of prevention measures in medical units, the lack of basic supplies, such as soap and antiseptic gels, or the improvement of the case registry, estimates the infectologist Juan Luis Mosqueda.
According to data from the General Directorate of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health (Ssa), in 2018 16 thousand 603 infections were reported and by 2019 they rose to 23 thousand 105.
Until week 51 of last year, the states with the most cases of infections associated with health care were Mexico City, with 6,298; Oaxaca, with 639; Yucatán, with one thousand 501; Puebla, with one thousand 439, and Nuevo León, with one thousand 296.
The researcher at the University of Guanajuato also explained that the growth may be due to the fact that more infectious outbreaks have occurred in various hospitals or that in this Administration an intentional search of these cases is being carried out to attend them.
The specialist also added that one reason to reduce this preventive action may be that some medical units have a lack of basic supplies such as soap and antibacterial gels.
“There are hospitals with many resource limitations, where suddenly there is no soap and water and infections are very high, and very high-level hospitals, with very good characteristics, where infections are very low,” he said.
Acquiring a hospital infection increases the probability of mortality in hospitalized patients; increases hospitalization time and care costs, the doctor said.
In addition, people have to use antibiotics to treat this problem, which increases their consumption.
“We ended up using more antibiotics and increasing resistance to bacteria,” he warned.
Although it is impossible to eradicate hospital infections, he said, epidemiological surveillance should be reinforced to prevent them from increasing.
The specialist explained that newborn babies, particularly premature babies; Older adults, patients with long hospital stays, and those with chronic diseases are the people most at risk of acquiring infections associated with medical care.
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