“Agreement on Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections” was signed between the Ministry of Health of Turkey and World Health Organization (WHO). This protocol aims to achieve “zero infection” in healthcare centers.
Deputy Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Emine Alp Meşe chaired the ceremony, and WHO representatives Prof. Didier Pittet, Ana Paula Coutinho Rehse and WHO Turkey Director Dr. Pavel Ursu attended the program.
Healthcare-Associated Infections are defined as the infections that are not present in the patients while they apply to the healthcare center, but emerge after the application of a healthcare service.
Prof. Alp Meşe stated, in her speech, that such developments in modern medicine as increase of invasive procedures, administration of large-spectrum surgical treatments and immunosuppressive medicines elevate the risk of healthcare-associated infections.
“Healthcare-associated infections pose an important public health threat in the world, and states make efforts for prevention and control of them, and it is possible to prevent such infections by means of the adoption of relevant measures” added Deputy Minister and pursued her statement as follows:
“One per 25 patients, on average, develops hospital infection in the world. As those are preventable, the entire world has set it as a target to diminish healthcare-associated infections. As the Ministry of Health, we also target to achieve zero infection in healthcare facilities. In this regard, we have prepared new action plans to accelerate the related works.”
“Hand hygiene is the most important factor in infection control”
Prof. Alp Meşe underlined that healthcare-associated infections are one of the most important indicators of service quality, and the hand hygiene is the cheapest, the easiest and the most effective method of eliminating infections.
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