People in nursing homes often suffer from health conditions that weaken their immune system, and they’re often on prolonged antibiotic use, which contributes to antibiotic-resistance. Because nursing home residents share many spaces and interact with one another, germs have a chance to move from person to person more easily. A research review of eight prior studies revealed that multidrug-resistant bacteria rates among nursing home residents ranged from 11% to an alarming 59%, with an average of 27%. Experts say that good hand hygiene is one of the number one ways to prevent infection and that continued work to reduce infection rates and the over utilization of antibiotics is needed to address this issue.
American Journal of Infection Control, May 2017