Hospital-Acquired Infections

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), also known as health-care-associated infections, encompass almost all clinically evident infections that do not originate from a patient's original admitting diagnosis. Within hours after admission, a patient's flora begins to acquire characteristics of the surrounding bacterial pool. Most infections that become clinically evident after 48 hours of hospitalisation are considered hospital-acquired. Infections that occur after the patient's discharge from the hospital can be considered to have a nosocomial origin if the organisms were acquired during the hospital stay. This book presents a set of reports detailing the depth of the problems as well as suggesting remedies.