Hospital-acquired infections coming down, says CDC

Hospital-acquired or hospital-linked infections, which are often said to lead to the deaths of as many as 100,000 people in the United States each year, are on the decline according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC).

The CDC has issued a report on the number of such infections for 2010, and the figures are down from where they were just a few years earlier. Specifically, the agency is reporting that these infections are down as much as 32%.

Infections that are reported include infections from the central line, as well as surgical site infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

States in the US have begun mandating the reporting of all three types of infections, ever since the formation of the National Healthcare Safety Network in 2005. Currently 20 different states in the Union have such mandates in place.

Source: MedPage Today