Doctors’ poor hand hygiene the main cause of hospital infections

Despite numerous hygiene awareness campaigns, the number of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) has failed to go down, De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad report. Not only are the infections more dangerous, they are also largely caused by doctors with dirty hands. Approximately 6% of patients contract an HAI during their hospital stay. This represents 111,300 patients a year for all Belgian hospitals, according to figures released by the European Centre for the prevention and control of diseases. Checks conducted in hospitals have shown that the problem of poor hand-washing hygiene is far more widespread among doctors than among nurses. The bacteria transmitted by dirty hands are more dangerous, says Annette Schuermans, professor of hospital hygiene at the University Leuven. "There are more and more bacteria circulating in hospitals against which antibiotics are powerless," she insists. "The number of patients with HAIs has been around the 6% mark since the mid-80s," adds Schuermans.