Nosocomial Infections in Medical Ward (Four Months Descriptive Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital)

2 Abstract: The objectives of this Descriptive study were, to determine the frequency of Nosocomial infection in the medical department, to identify the causes of Nosocomial infection and to identify the risk factors for Nosocomial infections. This hospital based descriptive study was conducted at Liaquat University Hospital (a tertiaty care hospital) Hyderabad Sindh Pakistan from September 2007 to December 2007. All patients who were above 12 years of age, admitted in the medical ward for more than 48 h with different complain and presentations, develops clinical evident of infections that do not originate from a patient's original admitting diagnosis were studied. All patients were carefully examined, relevant investigations were performed and data was collected through questionnaire. During our study period, 50 patients were identified to acquire nosocomial infection during hospitalization in medical ward. Most of the patients 29 (58%) were more than 50 years of age. Majority of patients 38 (76%) were develop fever (febrile illness). The most common hospital acquired infections found in our study were UTIs (68%), bloodstream (38%) and RTIs (26%), other infections we identified were skin, soft tissue, wound, MRSA, VRE and gastrointestinal. Our study concluded that the hospitalized patients are at great risk to develop nosocomial infection. We detected various infections in patients during their hospital stay acquired from different sources. The proper hygiene, sterilized instruments and equipments are the best tool to control these life threatening infections.