In 2018 it was reported that in-hospital infections had risen from 5,972 in 2008 to 48,815 in 2017. United States The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated roughly 1.7 million hospital-associated infections, from all types of bacteria combined, cause or contribute to 99,000 deaths each year. Other estimates indicate 10%, or 2 million, patients a year become infected, with the annual cost ranging from $4.5 billion to $11 billion. In the US, the most frequent type of hospital infection is urinary tract infection (36%), followed by surgical site infection (20%), and bloodstream infection and pneumonia (both 11%). History In 1841, Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian obstetrician was working at a Vienna maternity hospital. He was "shocked" by the death rate of women who developed puerperal fever. He documented that mortality was three times higher in the ward where the medical students were delivering babies than in the next ward that was staffed by midwifery students. The medical students were also routinely working with cadavers. He compared the rates of infection with a similar hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and hypothesized that it was the medical students who somehow were infecting the women after labor. He instituted mandatory hand-washing in May 1847 and infection rates dropped dramatically. Louis Pasteur proposed the germ theory of disease and began his work on cholera in 1865 by identifying that it was microorganisms that were associated with disease. See also Cubicle curtain ESKAPE Infection control Iatrogenesis Phototherapy Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures References External links Health care quality Infectious diseases Intensive care medicine Medical hygiene Occupational diseases Healthcare-associated infections