Spreading Antibiotic resistance and the role of hospitals in curtailing this problem - World Health Day 2011

Indian hospitals are going to need special precautions to prevent the spread of the antibiotic resistant bacteria across India. Over crowding, improper waste disposal, inappropriate use of antibiotic use without guidance will be focused more and more as the cause of spread of bacterial resistance. Frequent hand washing in the hospitals would be an important measure to reduce the spread of the resistant bacteria across the different wards in the hospitals. In the other countries such as USA and Europe Hospital-acquired infections are a major challenge to patient safety. It is estimated that in 2002, a total of 1.7 million hospital-acquired infections occurred (4.5 per 100 admissions), and almost 99,000 deaths resulted from or were associated with a hospital-acquired infection, making hospital-acquired infections the sixth leading cause of death in the United States; similar data have been reported from Europe. The estimated costs to the U.S. health care budget are $5 billion to $10 billion annually. Approximately one third or more of hospital-acquired infections are preventable.

Population in India
India added more than 181 million people to its swelling population in the past decade, growing to over 1.21 billion people, according to the latest census data released by officials on Thursday, 31st March 2011.
“We are now over 17 percent of the world population, and India is 2.4 percent of the world’s surface area,” said C. Chandramauli, India’s census commissioner. “We have added the population of Brazil to India’s numbers this time.”
The total population grew from 1.02 billion people in 2001 to 1.21 billion this year, according to the preliminary calculations of the massive census exercise that ended in February, costing over $492,000. The population of India now is almost equal to the combined population of United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan