Veterinary facilities are not excluded from the risk of hospital-acquired infections and these occur more often than we would care to admit. In order to provide the best veterinary care possible, veterinarians and their staff have an underlying responsibility to minimize the risk of additional harm that might befall a patient because of their interventions. This includes minimizing the risk of exposing patients to infectious agents. It is therefore incumbent upon vets to actively manage the risk of nosocomial infections. These infections in veterinary facilities are not solely a patient-care concern; as in human health the spread of infectious agents can also significantly impact on normal daily operations, revenue, client satisfaction, client confidence, public image and can even affect the morale of staff. The most important factor in preventing these infections is improving the hygiene practices of health care providers. All staff members associated with animal care must be educated in proper hand-washing procedures, aseptic technique, basic hygiene principles and the appropriate use of disinfectants.

The aim of this article is to highlight the need for proper infection control programmes in veterinary practices.

Nosocomial or hospital-acquired infections are an inherent risk of hospitalization and are undesirable, costly, can be life-threatening and can usually be prevented. Sources of such infections can be either endogenous (e.g. from the patient's own flora) or exogenous (e.g. from a source other than the patient). Most nosocomial infections are endemic, occur with predictable frequency, are endogenous in origin and occur among immunocompromised, severely ill, or elderly patients. Epidemic infections are less common and imply a common source (exogenous), vector transmission and are often associated with specific procedures or devices.
Factors that predispose patients to nosocomial infections can be classified as intrinsic (e.g. age, sex, breed, immune status of patient) or extrinsic (e.g. surgical procedures, diagnostic or therapeutic interventions, staff exposures). Although many factors affect the risk of virtually all nosocomial infections, such as severity of underlying illness, advanced age, immunosuppression and surgical procedures, others affect the risk of a specific infection. For example, mechanical ventilation specifically increases the risk of nosocomial pneumonia and indwelling urinary catheters are associated with urinary tract infections.

The prevention  of nosocomial infections  by the   identification  of   risk   factors   and   the

development, i.e, introduction and monitoring the effectiveness and efficiency of preventative measures, is the principle objective of hospital biosecurity.

Respiratory equipment can easily become sources of infection

According to figures released by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March 2005, 90,000 Americans die each year due to nosocomial infections and another 1.9 million suffer needlessly from infection related illnesses. These patients spend up to 30 more days in hospital and together with the additional treatment it adds a considerable amount to the nation's health care bill - as much as $5 billion dollars annually.

In the UK hospital acquired infections strike about 100,000 people a year, costing £1 billion and resulting in about 5,000 deaths. (Weekly Telegraph 24 March 2004). A recent report in the same newspaper indicates that the situation has worsened dramatically over the past two years. The reasons given for the increase is that the hospitals are too full at 85% capacity. The initiative taken to get staff to wash their hands or use an alcohol hand gel has not had any significant effect on reducing hospital acquired infections. (Weekly Telegraph 14 March 2007).

“South Africa is on the verge of a massive increase in the outbreak of infectious diseases in our hospitals with very few measures to control it” (Sunday Tribune 24 July 2005). “We suspect that in South Africa a conservative estimate of hospital acquired infections is about 15% of admissions. I would not be surprised if in some institutions this figure is even more horrific” (Prof Sam Mhlongo, Medunsa, The Star 24 December 2004).

Unfortunately infection control and more particularly disinfection are too often seen as a cost to be minimized rather than a Quality Assurance issue to be properly dealt with in the delivery of the medical care to the patient.

The responsible use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine to safeguard the efficacy of antibiotic therapy in animals and