Greeks dying in intensive care units…

The dangerous multidrug-resistant bacteria are coming and going in the hospitals of our country. Pseudomonas, acinetobacter and klebsiella are the 3 invisible but most powerful enemies of the patients in the NHS. Resistance to antibiotics even exceeds 80%, giving Greece an unwanted first place in Europe, and to patients serious and often fatal, infections. Bacteremia, pneumonia, urinary tract and surgical infections are the four "national" in-hospital infections responsible for deaths, increased hospitalizations and the overburdening of the NHS.

The results of the National Plan of Action implemented since November 2010 by KEELPNO to control the spread of multi-resistant pathogens, called "Procrustes", is revealing about the situation in public hospitals.

According to data sent to KEELPNO by 112 of the 128 NHS hospitals from November 2010 - October 2011, 4,229 cases of hospital-acquired infections were reported in hospitalized patients. Of these, 1 in 3 died. For 27.5% of infected patients, hospitalization was prolonged by at least 2 weeks while a lucky 38% of patients received a discharge, but with strong medication.

The largest outbreak for spreading germs occurs in the ICUs

Most infections were recorded in ICUs with 54.9%, followed by the clinical pathology field (27.4%) and the surgical field (17.7%). The highest observed mortality rates were recorded in ICUs, reaching 43.6% while the corresponding figures for the pathological and surgical field are 30.2% and 19.5% respectively.

Regarding the type of infection that was recorded, bacteremia and pneumonia were the most frequent, reaching rates of 34.8% and 29.8% respectively, followed by UTI (21%) and surgical site infections (14.4%). The most common type of pneumonia was the one associated with the respirator (73.9%).

The strains that were isolated and identified as being responsible for the infections were Klebsiella (43,2%), Acinetobacter (35,9%) and Pseudomonas (20.9%). According to the figures, the invisible enemies of hospitals mainly affect the male population, as 64% of patients with hospital-acquired infections are men.

It is necessary to implement a policy to reduce outbreaks

Experts concede that ICUs are contaminated because of their incapacity for effective disinfection, as lack of intensive care beds makes it impossible to shut them down and sterilized the beds. Also, the overuse of antibiotics in Greece is another serious aspect of the problem, as excessive consumption has created strong and multi-resistant germs.