A Review of Nosocomial Infections in Sub-Saharan Africa

Nosocomial infections are a major public health problem globally and are on the increase despite efforts in hospital infection control measures and contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality. Naturally, any micro-organism has the potential to cause infection in hospitalized patients however, only a few including Staphylococci, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococci, fungi and to a lesser extent, viruses and parasites are responsible for the majority of nosocomial infections. In sub-Saharan Africa, data available show that the incidence of nosocomial infections ranges from 2-49% with patients in intensive care units having the highest rate ranging from 21.2-35.6%. The prevalence of nosocomial infections have been reported to vary between 1.6%-28.7% in Burkina Faso, United Republic of Tanzania, Ghana, Mali, Cameroon, Gabon, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic republic of Congo and Senegal. In Nigeria and Ethiopia, the total accruing occurrence in surgical wards has been reported to vary from 5.7%-45.8% with the later having an incidence as high as 45.8% and an incidence density equal 26.7 infections per 1000 patient days in paediatric surgical patients. In addition, 3.4 -10.9% of hospital-associated infections often result to mortality in most developed countries though these figures are suspected to be higher in developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria. However, simple and effective control programmes together with effective training of healthcare workers will go a long way in reducing the endemic nature of nosocomial infections in sub Saharan Africa. This paper highlights the natural history, distribution, risk factors of nosocomial infections especially in sub Saharan Africa as well as its contributory factors.