Porto Alegre, February 9, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Cases of hospital infection have diminished in Rio Grande do Sul over the past five years, as a result of the installation of commissions to control the problem in hospitals around the state.

According to Fernando Weber Matos, a physician who is a member of the Regional Council of Medicine, the commissions, composed of infectious disease speciaIists, nurses, biochemical pharmacists, and hospital administrators, exert greater control over the ways in which infections are transmitted, such as those that occur because of instrument contamination or inadequate cleaning of rooms.

The doctor warns, however, that there always exists a degree of contamination as a function of the diseases, procedures, and conditions of the patients. Infectious disease specialist Teresa Cristina Teixeira Sukiennik, of the Porto Alegre Mercy Hospital complex, assures that 60% of infections are unpredictable. According to her, every time a person cuts him(her)self, there is a risk of bacteria penetrating the skin. (DAS)