What is the leading cause of hospital infection outbreaks in US hospitals? If you guessed Staphylococcus aureus or Clostridium difficile, you’d be wrong.
According to an Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) news release Tuesday, a study published by researchers from Chartis, Main Line Health System, Lexington Insurance Company, and APIC Consulting Services say it’s norovirus.
The study published in the Feb 2012 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) reports that was responsible for 18.2 percent of all infection outbreaks and 65 percent of ward closures in U.S. hospitals during a two-year period.
Researchers collected survey responses from 822 APIC members who work in U.S. hospitals regarding outbreak investigations at their institutions during 2008 and 2009.
The purpose of the study was to determine how often outbreak investigations are initiated in U.S. hospitals, as well as the triggers for investigations, types of organisms, and control measures including unit closures.
According to the study, thirty-five percent of the 822 hospitals responding had investigated at least one outbreak during the study period.
Four organisms accounted for nearly 60% of all hospital outbreaks- norovirus, Staphylococcus aureus (17.5 percent), Acinetobacter spp (13.7 percent), and Clostridium difficile (10.3 percent).
In the hospital, the Medical/Surgical units were the most common location of outbreak investigations (25.7 percent), followed by surgical units (13.9 percent). Just more than half of investigations were reported to an external agency.
What is norovirus?
The CDC describes norovirus and the symptoms that accompany it like this: Noroviruses are a group of viruses that cause the “stomach flu,” or gastroenteritis in people.
The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people, the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days. In general, children experience more vomiting than adults do.
Norovirus is spread person to person particularly in crowded, closed places. Norovirus is typically spread through contaminated food and water, touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus and then putting your hand or fingers in your mouth and close contact with someone who is vomiting or has diarrhea.
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