At the second scientific conference on hospital-acquired infections was held on September 14 in Hanoi, Associate Professor Le Thi Anh Thu, President of the Vietnam Infection Control Association, said that infection control practices at medical facilities played a very important role in helping prevent "hospital epidemics".

The hospital areas with a high risk of infection include emergency resuscitation, neonatal care, and surgery. If operating rooms are not safe and surgical instruments are not sterilized well, patients may get an infection in surgical sites.

In emergency and intensive care units, infections may worsen patients' condition, increasing the risk of death. In many cases, patients are hospitalized because of non-communicable diseases such as stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, but they die of bacterial infections in the hospital.

A report from the HCM City Oncology Hospital said hospital-acquired infections are the second leading cause of death for cancer patients. Antibiotic resistance is an urgent threat to the success of cancer treatments.

A study from the medical facility on 7,000 microbiological samples from 2017 to 2021 found that the ratio of positive microbiological cultures was 48.1 percent, while skin, soft tissue, and surgical site infections were up to 67.5 percent, and respiratory infections were up 18 percent. 

The two gram-negative bacteria, E.coli and klebsiella sp, were most commonly seen at the hospital, while the ratio of multidrug-resistant bacteria isolated increased annually, and the trend of antibiotic use in the hospital increased.

Dr Phan Thi Hang, deputy director of Hung Vuong Hospital in HCM City, said hospital-acquired infections pose a great danger, citing a report as saying that 15 percent of infants are prone to bacterial contamination. Many babies are fully healthy, but just one day after birth, they may have to use oxygen or a ventilator due to hospital-acquired infections.

As a result, leaders of the hospital have spent a lot of money to develop an infection control network, which has helped reduce the infection ratio in newborns to 1-2 percent.

The healthcare sector has seen a high number of mass hospital-required infections. In 2017, four newborns in Bac Giang province died of Acinetobacter baumannii.

In 2013, at H.G Hospital, 92 patients underwent laparoscopic surgeries within two months. The patients were healthy when they were discharged from the hospital, but 20 days later, they contracted infections at the sites of surgery. Doctors prescribed antibiotics, but the patients’ conditions did not improve.

Bacterial culture results showed that 40 out of the 92 patients were infected with Nontuberculosis Mycobacteria (a type of bacteria that is resistant to most new-generation antibiotics). The problem was that the surgical instruments were soaked in contaminated chemicals. After the case, the Ministry of Health required laparoscopic tools to be sterilized and not soaked in chemicals.

Phuong Thuy