Nosocomial Infections in Sub-Saharan Africa | Chapter 09 | Recent Advances in Biological Research Vol. 3
The history of nosocomial infections can be traced to the origin of hospitals themselves and have been defined by the WHO as infections that develop in a patient during his/her stay in a hospital or other types of clinical facilities which were not present at the time of admission. Nosocomial infections are a major public health problem globally and are on the increase despite efforts in hospital infection control measures and contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality. Naturally, any micro-organism has the potential to cause infection in hospitalized patients however, only a few including Staphylococci, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococci, fungi and to a lesser extent, viruses and parasites are responsible for the majority of nosocomial infections. In sub-Saharan Africa, data available show that the incidence of nosocomial infections ranges from 2-49% with patients in intensive care units having the highest rate ranging from 21.2-35.6%. The pr...