Fall in golden staph infections

The number of golden staph infections in Australian public hospitals is falling thanks to more medical staff washing their hands.

Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is a potentially deadly bacterial infection associated with hospital care and surgical procedures in particular.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says the number of public hospital infections was just 1621 cases in 2013-14, down from 1876 cases in 2010-11.

It attributed the decline in infections to better hand hygiene by medical staff.

Compliance with hand-washing guidelines has risen from 64.1 per cent to 81 per cent in the past five years, the AIHW says.