The Journal of hospital infection
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Multicenter Study
Epidemiology of nosocomial bloodstream infections in Estonia.
A prospective multicentre hospital-wide surveillance study was performed to investigate nosocomial bloodstream infections (BSIs) and to promote BSI surveillance in Estonia in 2004-2005. All patients from the acute care departments of two referral centres and one central hospital were included. A total of 549 episodes of BSI occurred in 507 patients (0.6 cases per 1000 patient-days). ⋯ The incidence of BSI did not differ significantly from other reported studies. With the exception of relatively high antimicrobial resistance among pseudomonas, the overall resistance patterns of Estonian nosocomial bloodstream pathogens were similar to those seen in Nordic countries and lower than in Central and Southern Europe. This study contributes to the development and implementation of surveillance in Estonian hospitals.
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We conducted a prospective study of targeted surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in 13 intensive care units (ICUs) from 12 Turkish hospitals, all members of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC). The definitions of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (NNISS) were applied. During the three-year study, 3288 patients for accumulated duration of 37 631 days acquired 1277 device-associated infections (DAI), an overall rate of 38.3% or 33.9 DAIs per 1000 ICU-days. ⋯ Overall 89.2% of all Staphylococcus aureus infections were caused by methicillin-resistant strains, 48.2% of the Enterobacteriaceae isolates were resistant to ceftriaxone, 52.0% to ceftazidime, and 33.2% to piperacilin-tazobactam; 51.1% of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were resistant to fluoroquinolones, 50.7% to ceftazidime, 38.7% to imipenem, and 30.0% to piperacilin-tazobactam; 1.9% of Enterococcus sp. isolates were resistant to vancomycin. This is the first multi-centre study showing DAI in Turkish ICUs. DAI rates in the ICUs of Turkey are higher than reports from industrialized countries.
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Multicenter Study
Effectiveness of a nationwide nosocomial infection surveillance system for reducing nosocomial infections.
In recent years, several countries have established surveillance systems for nosocomial infections (NIs) on a national basis. Limited information has been published on the effectiveness of these national surveillance systems. The aim of this study was to investigate whether participation in the German national NI surveillance system [Krankenhaus Infektions Surveillance System (KISS)] resulted in reduced rates of NIs. ⋯ Comparing the infection rates in the third year with the first year, the relative risk (RR) for VAP was 0.71 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.66-0.76] and the RR for CR-BSI was 0.80 (95% CI 0.72-0.90). The corresponding RR for SSI was 0.72 [95% CI 0.64-0.80]. Participation in KISS was associated with a significant reduction in these three NIs.
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Multicenter Study
Hand rub consumption and hand hygiene compliance are not indicators of pathogen transmission in intensive care units.
The objective of this study was to investigate whether nosocomial infection (NI) rates, hand hygiene compliance rates and the amount of alcohol-based hand rub used for hand disinfection are useful indicators of pathogen transmission in intensive care units (ICUs), and whether they could be helpful in identifying infection control problems. All isolates of 10 of the most frequent pathogens from patients who were hospitalized in an ICU for >48 h were genotyped to identify transmission episodes in five ICUs. The incidence of transmission was correlated with hand hygiene compliance, hand rub consumption and NI rates. ⋯ There was no correlation between the incidence of transmission episodes and hand rub consumption or hand hygiene compliance. The correlation between transmission rates and NI rates was 0.4 (P = 0.5), and with the exclusion of one ICU, it was 1 (P < 0.01). The incidence of NI is a relatively good indicator for the identification of pathogen transmissions, but hand rub consumption and hand hygiene compliance, at least with the relatively low level of compliance found in this study, are not indicators of pathogen transmission.