Do you know that Pneumonia is the foremost infectious disease causing death in children below 5 years of age? Let us understand what it is.
Pneumonia is an infection that affects human lungs and causes inflammation of the air sacs. The alveoli (air sacs) might get filled with pus or fluid resulting in cough.
Healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) are infections that patients get while receiving treatment for a separate condition in a healthcare facility. They are also known as “nosocomial infections”. It has been observed that over 1.4 million patients suffer from healthcare associated infections (HAIs) globally at any time.
HAIs can be associated with procedures (surgery) and the devices used in medical procedures (catheters or ventilators).
The microbes are ubiquitous and are found in water, air and soil. The fact is that not all microbes or germs are harmful, but some of them are good as well. The microbes cause illness only when they enter the part of the body where they are not supposed to be.
Thank God we are blessed with a defence system –immune system, which acts as a barrier against these germs, but surpassing this immune barrier causes infections.
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Washing hands is an important habit which helps get rid of illness-causing germs and keeps you healthy. It also removes dirt and stops microorganisms from spreading to other people.
Handwashing prevents people from picking infections, flu and other diseases like diarrhoea, food poisoning and passing on the same to others. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that handwashing is one of the best ways to protect ourselves and our family from falling sick.
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are one of the most prevailing adverse events among hospitalized patients. These nosocomial infections are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among critically ill hospitalized patients, especially in intensive care units (ICUs).
The most serious among these infections develop at the vascular access sites and are called as the Central Venous Catheter-associated Bloodstream Infections (CVC-BSIs) or may also be labeled as the Catheter-Related Blood Stream Infections (CRBSI).
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“Superbugs” refers to those strains of bacteria which have become resistant to most of the antibiotics, available at present. Merriam Webster dictionary defines a Superbug as “a pathogenic microorganism and especially a bacterium that has developed resistance to the medications normally used against it”.
The superbugs cause many dangerous infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections and skin infections to name a few. As per WHO, in 2016, nearly 5 lac people developed multi-drug resistant TB globally.
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