Nosocomial infections are infections acquired during a hospital stay and that were not present either in the incubation period or at the time of the patient’s admission. Infections that occur more than 48 hours after admission are usually considered nosocomial.
However, today the concept of healthcare-related infection has clearly gone beyond the hospital setting. Technological advances, which have facilitated the extension of life to very advanced ages, have led health care towards environments that are not strictly hospital. Patients go to day centers to control their illnesses, diagnostic techniques and major surgical interventions are performed on an outpatient basis, outpatient hemodialysis is performed, intravenous treatments are performed at home, or they are admitted to socio-health centers for chronic or convalescent patients. in which health care of a certain complexity is provided.
Causes:
-Contact with a colony of pathogenic microorganisms rooted in a hospital facility.
-An unsafe treatment.
-Sharing a contaminated vial.
-The mother at the time of childbirth.
-Visitors carrying an infection transmissible through contact or through the air.
-The health personnel themselves who assist the patient.
-A hospital facility that is too old and difficult to sterilize.