Technology and hygiene are keys to lowering infection

ATLANTA (AP) -- Infections contracted in hospitals kill as many as 88,000 people each year, a number that could be reduced with increased use of technology and simple measures such as more frequent handwashing, a researcher said Sunday at a conference on the problem.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control opened a five-day conference on preventing and reducing health-care associated infections in Atlanta.Dr. Richard P. Wenzel, chairman of the internal medicine department at the Medical College of Virginia said new devices such as catheters coated with antibiotics have proven effective against infection spread at health facilities.

But those are still far costlier than simple but equally necessary steps as getting doctors and nurses to wash their hands after every patient contact, he said.

"Hand washing is cheap, but the impact from it is great," Wenzel said.

Using what he called conservative estimates, Wenzel calculated that bloodstream infections contracted at health care facilities could be the nation's eighth leading cause of death, claiming more than 25,000 people each year.

On Thursday, the CDC reported that the rate of such infections fell by about 44 percent in the 1990s in medical intensive care units at 300 facilities that report to the government.

The infections typically are caused by catheters, intravenous lines and breathing tubes common to most hospital stays. Such devices allow bacteria easy entry into the body.

Wenzel said simply placing an alcohol dispenser at each patient bed cut blood infection rates by 40 percent in one hospital because workers disinfected their hands more often.

Another effective method is for doctors to model good habits in front of colleagues and medical students.

"When I'm up in the ICU and I'm washing my hands, I always tell the students, 'Oh this feels good, oh it's phenomenal,"' Wenzel said. "I give them the idea that they are missing out on something if they don't wash their hands."

Dr. William Jarvis, with the CDC's Hospital Infection Program, said medical professionals must control infections better because the number of older Americans will soar in the next century. The elderly are particularly at risk for infection and more likely to spend time in a hospital.

Jarvis estimated the population of people over 65 in the U.S. -- 40 million in 1998 -- is likely to double by 2035.