Steps to prevent infections

The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control offers these tips to help people protect themselves from germs:

+Live as healthy a lifestyle as you can: Get rest, eat well and don't let yourself get run down.

+Don't touch your face.

+Sneeze on a handkerchief or tissue instead of your hand.

+Send home sick employees.

+Wipe off handle of shopping cart.

+Use a hand sanitizer +Wash your hands.

You can protect yourself from infections by practicing good hygiene (e.g., keeping your hands clean by washing with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand rub), covering any open skin area such as abrasions or cuts with a clean dry bandage, avoiding sharing personal items such as towels or razors; using a barrier (clothing or a towel) between your skin and shared equipment and wiping surfaces of equipment before and after use.

Drug-resistant pathogens are a growing threat to all people, especially in healthcare settings.

Each year nearly 2 million patients in the United States get an infection in a hospital.Of those patients, about 90,000 die as a result of the infection.

More than 70 percent of the bacteria that cause hospitalacquired infections are resistant to at least one of the drugs most commonly used to treat them.

People infected with drugresistant organisms are more likely to have longer hospital stays and require second- or third-choice drugs that may be less effective, more toxic and more expensive.