Iatrogenic infection

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An iatrogenic infection is an infection that developed as part of medical measures. Epidemiologically , the term nosocomial infection is used independently of this for hospital infections in order to point out the special development conditions in the hospital environment.

Various causes are known for hospital infections , one of which is the indiscriminate use of antibiotics . In human medicine , around 250 to 300 tons of antibiotics are used annually in Germany, around 85 percent of the prescriptions are in the outpatient sector.

Practical example

If, for example, a doctor or nursing staff in a hospital or practice injures themselves with the contaminated cannula after an intravenous injection into an HIV patient and becomes infected with HIV, this type of infection is referred to as an iatrogenic infection and not at the same time nosocomial infection. Even if another patient is infected with a contaminated needle with such a pathogen through carelessness, one speaks only of an iatrogenic infection.

Epidemiology of Hospital Infections

For Germany , there are no exact infection and mortality figures for hospital infections, because after the infection protection law only the "frequent occurrence" of infections were reported. Gastmeier estimated the total number of nosocomial infections in Germany at 400,000 to 600,000 for the entire year 2006 with a mortality rate of 2.6%, which would correspond to around 10,000 to 15,000 deaths per year.

The German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH), on the other hand, considers this information to be "embellished". In 2012 she wrote of 900,000 people infected each year in Germany and up to 40,000 deaths from nosocomial infections. In 2014, the DGKH estimates 900,000 nosocomial infections that led to 30,000 deaths in Germany. The 2013 quality report of the AQUA Institute assumes 975,000 nosocomial infections in Germany for 2013. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung , 3 million people fall ill every year from infections that they contracted in hospital, and around 50,000 people die from them.

In Italy , between 4,500 and 7,000 people die each year from infections they contracted during a hospital stay. Italy should therefore be in the European average.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Germs against which nothing can help. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . of October 10, 2008, p. 22.
  2. ↑ Brigitte Zander: Death lurks in the hospital. On stern.de ; Retrieved January 25, 2016.
  3. ↑ P. Gastmeier, C. Geffers: Nosocomial Infections in Germany: How Many Are There Really? An estimate for the year 2006. In: Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift. Vol. 133, No. 21, 2008, ISSN  0012-0472 , doi : 10.1055 / s-2008-1077224 , pp. 1111-1115 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Up to 30,000 deaths per year from hospital infections. ( Memento of the original from October 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On aerzteblatt.de on May 9, 2011, last accessed on January 25, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aerzteblatt.de
  5. ↑ German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH): 800,000 infections, 40,000 deaths, enormous economic damage and still no end! Press release from the Congress for Hospital Hygiene of the DGKH from March 25 to 28, 2012 in Berlin ( full text as PDF file; 110 kB ); last accessed on January 25, 2016.
  6. ↑ The press conference for the 12th Hospital Hygiene Congress was very well attended! Announcement on the DGKH website of March 28, 2014. There is also a link to the press kit with the current DGKH documents on the subject
  7. ↑ Quality report 2013 on behalf of the Federal Joint Committee, results of external inpatient quality assurance on nosocomial infections, p. 223.
  8. ↑ Quoted in hospitals that make you sick. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . from January 11, 2007, p. 10.