ABSTRACT
Hospital-acquired infections are regarded as infections that occur in hospital environment more than 48 hours after hospital admission. They may occur by transmitting the infections from the environment into the tissues where they cause inflammatory pathological process. Another way of transmitting the infections is from one's own tissues, that is, from the organism, micro-organisms commensal which reach the sterile mucous membranes resulting in inflammatory reactions. The way of spreading micro-organisms in hospital-conditions, particularly in an intensive care unit (ICU), is both primary and secondary, as well as endogenous and exogenous. The endogenous one is created by a colonization of previously sterile mucous membranes from one's own organism. They are more frequent in immuno-compromised patients.
Manuscripts that are Published Ahead of Print have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial Board of the West Indian Medical Journal. They may appear in their original format and may not be copy edited or formatted in the style guide of this Journal. While accepted manuscripts are not yet assigned a volume, issue or page numbers, they can be cited using the DOI and date of e-publication. See our Instructions for Authors on how to properly cite manuscripts at this stage. The contents of the manuscript may change before it is published in its final form. Manuscripts in this section will be removed once they have been issued to a volume and issue, but will still retain the DOI and date of e-publication.