Breast Cancer & Hospital-Associated Infections: Stay Cautious

If you are a patient with breast cancer, you must have visited your hospital more than once. But have you ever cared for the infections that you caught, thanks to your hospital visit? These infections--that you develop at a hospital or any other patient care facility—are medically called Hospital-associated infections (HAI).

About 1.4 millions people around the globe, at any point of time, suffer from HAI, the World Health Organization suggests. In 2002, an estimated 98,987 people in the U.S. died of HAI, indicates a report in 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Although the human cost is much higher, if you just analyze the issue financially, you’ll find that the annual impact of HAIs—to healthcare facilities--is as high as $6.7 billion.

This is the statistics part. But, if you think deeply, as a patient with breast cancer, it’s important that you always stay away from HAIs. It’s simply because when breast cancer itself often leads to certain adversities to your life, HAIs can worsen your wellbeing by lengthening the period of hospitalization and increasing the chances of readmission, and also by substantially adding to the treatment cost.

So, next time you visit a hospital, stay cautious.

In order to educate people about HAIs, Kimblery-Clark Healthcare has launched a website "Not on My Watch" at www.haiwatch.com. The site is recommended, if you wish to know about various aspects of HAIs.

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