Almost 80 per cent of surgeries and recovery rooms in 13 of HCM City's hospitals are unhygienic, a new survey has found.

The municipal Hygiene and Public Health Institute survey showed that most samples of air and water taken from such major hospitals as Cho Ray, Thong Nhat, Tu Du, Nguyen Tri Phuong, An Binh and Children No 1 contained bacteria.

A German Merck microbial air monitoring machine revealed that most of 130 samples contained staphylococcus aureus - a bacteria likely to cause such a serious disease as meningitis as well as respiratory infections, said the institute's Health and Environment Department's Dr Nguyen Quoc Tuan.

Such harmful micro-organisms in places that were supposed to be the cleanest in a hospital would impair a patient's recovery, he said.

Tuan attributed the contamination to dirty medical instruments; the failure of physicians and staff to wash their hands properly; and poor hygiene among patients.

The physician suggested that hygiene in hospitals would improve if all the staff - from medicos to cleaners - became more aware of the need for cleanliness.

Doctors and nurses should wash their hands regularly to protect the health of both their own and their patients, he said.

Standard ventilation systems should also be installed in surgery and recovery rooms to avoid air contamination.

The HCM City Infection Control Society's Dr Phan Thi Nga said bacteria contamination could extend a patient's treatment between nine and 24 days and add substantially to the cost of the treatment.

The society's figures showed that about 600,000 of 7.5 million patients admitted to hospital fell victim to bacteria.

From VietnamNews