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Patient deaths from hospital infections investigated in France

Infection Control Monitor, January 2, 2004

Even one of the best health systems in the world is not immune from its patients contracting hospital infections, Agence France-Presse reports.

Two hospitals in France have come under scrutiny following the 1999 deaths of two patients from hospital-acquired infections. Officials recently opened criminal investigations against staff members at one of the hospitals, the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, and the municipal hospital's agency, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris (AP-HP). A 44-year-old patient at Pitie-Salpetriere contracted gangrene while hospitalized following brain surgery and died four days later. Investigations revealed professional lapses in his care.

The other investigation involves the death of a 70-year-old woman at the Cochin Hospital, apparently from a pulmonary infection contracted during a lung examination.

In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked France's health system as the best in the world. France's health ministry reports that about 7% of patients at the country's hospitals contract infections during their stays there.

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