Yaoundé, 2 September 2008 -- World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has called on African countries to prioritize “patient safety”, a concept that refers to processes or structures which, when applied, reduce the possibility of adverse events resulting from exposure to the health-care system across a range of diseases and procedures.

A report by Dr Sambo, to be discussed on Tuesday at the fifty-eighth session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa taking place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, lists ten actions which could significantly improve patient safety in the African Region.

These are the development of a national policy for patient safety; raising awareness of all stakeholders on the importance of patient safety; ensuring safe surgical care; minimizing healthcare-associated infections; and ensuring adequate funding for patient safety activities.

Others are improving knowledge and learning in patient safety; re-orienting health systems to make patient safety an integral part of quality care; ensuring appropriate use, quality and safety of medicines; and strengthening surveillance and capacity for research.

“Every patient has the right to treatment using the safest technology available in health facilities. Therefore, all health care professionals and institutions have obligations to provide safe and quality health care and to avoid unintentional harm to patients,” WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, says in the report.

Healthcare-associated infection is a global problem, with over 1.4 million people suffering from it at any given time. It is estimated that in hospitals in developed countries, 5% to 10% of patients acquire one or more infections in health facilities, the risk being two to 20 times higher in developing countries, with patients undergoing surgery being the most affected.

Medical errors could result in numerous preventable injuries and deaths; worldwide, adverse events have been estimated to occur in 4% to 16% of all hospital patients. More than half of these occur in surgical care, and more than half are preventable. Unsafe blood and medicines are other important sources of patient harm worldwide.

Factors blamed for the high rate of healthcare-associated infections in Africa include weak health care delivery systems; poor infrastructure to support basic but essential procedures such as hand hygiene; weak management capacity; under-equipped health facilities; poor injection and blood safety procedures; overcrowding; and limited microbiological information.

In 2004, 7% of countries in the African Region did not test all donated blood for HIV; 22% did not test for hepatitis B and 51% did not test for hepatitis C. The proportion of infections caused by syringes or needles reused without sterilization ranged from 1.5% to 69.4%

A recent WHO survey on the quality of antimalarial drugs in seven African countries revealed that between 20% and 90% of the products failed quality testing.

The report calls for global action to ensure that all concerned players contribute to this important component of health-care systems.

For further information:

Technical contact:

Dr Jean Bosco Ndihokubwayo

Tel: + 47 241 39269

E-mail: ndihokubwayoj [at] afro.who.int

Media contact:

Samuel Ajibola

Tel : +47 241 39378

E-mail : ajibolas [at] afro.who.int