The growing prevalence of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) is one of the major factors fueling the demand for sterilization technology. HAIs or the infections acquired in healthcare settings such as clinics, ambulatory service centers, and hospitals usually occur during healthcare delivery. The growing incidence of these diseases is causing a sharp rise in mortality around the world. Moreover, the healthcare industry is incurring huge financial losses because of the rising prevalence of these infections.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), out of every 100 hospitalized patients, nearly 10 patients in the developing countries and 7 patients in the developed countries are likely to be infected with at least one HAI at any given time in the upcoming years. The organization also found that the occurrence rate of these infections is much higher in the low- and middle-income countries than in the high-income nations.
Besides, the increasing requirement for surgeries is also propelling the demand for sterilization technology across the world. As per a 2016 WHO publication, around 266.2 to 359.5 million surgeries were performed all over the world in 2012. The increasing incidence of obesity is one of the key factors fueling the requirement for surgeries. This is because of the mushrooming demand for bariatric surgeries, due to the growing incidence of obesity.
These surgeries have been found to be more effective in treating obesity than the other treatment procedures. Due to these factors, the global sterilization technology market is exhibiting huge expansion. Out of the sterilization technology devices, consumables, and services, the demand for the devices was found to be the highest in the years gone by. This was due to the high incidence of HAIs, increasing number of hospitals, and the expansion of the medical device and biotechnologies industries.
The major application areas of sterilization technology are pharmaceutical and medical devices. Between these two, the requirement for sterilization was higher for the pharmaceutical devices during the last few years, according to the observations of P&S Intelligence, a market research company based in India. This was due to the huge demand for advanced invasive devices, on account of the presence of a large geriatric population and the huge volume of surgeries that were performed globally.
Globally, the demand for sterilization technology is predicted to rise at the fastest rate in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region over the next few years. This will be because of the surging population of geriatric people, increasing healthcare expenditure, soaring pollution levels, increasing medical tourism, and flourishing pharmaceutical industry in the region. As per the World Bank, the healthcare spending in South Asia grew from 3.9% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2000 to 4.4% in 2014.
Hence, it is quite clear that the demand for sterilization technology will soar in the coming years, mainly due to the growing prevalence of HAIs, increasing volume of surgeries being performed, and the mushrooming population of ageing people all over the world.
