A study partly led by a University of Alberta professor has found that hospital infections are declining in Canada.
The study was published in the September issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
"There is no single reason for the overall decline in infection types,” said Geoffrey Taylor, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Alberta who helped lead the study.
“Canadian hospitals have taken multiple steps which have proven effective. For example, many hospitals now monitor hand hygiene, and we've been able to show at our own hospital that adherence rates have gone up from the 60 per cent range to the high 80 per cent range.”
The study found a 30 per cent decrease in hospital infections between 2009 and 2017.
The researchers stress that health care-associated infections are a substantial health issue, with an estimated five per cent of patients admitted to U.S. hospitals in 2002 developing an infection.
Doctors says urinary tract, infections are the most common type of hospital-acquired infection followed by pneumonia and surgical site infections.
