Laboratory Medicine and Nosocomial Infections: Surveying HIAs

Seventh article in Laboratory Medicine and Nosocomial Infections series - In January 2009, the US Department of Health and Human Services (Washington DC, USA) established a set of five-year national prevention targets to reduce and possibly eliminate healthcare-associated infections (HIAs). Two consortiums were formed in 2008 to establish connections between hospital labs and leading academic labs to track drug-resistant patterns and new multiple antibiotic-resistant strains.

The results of one International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from 2002 through 2007 in 98 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe were reported in the November 2008 American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) by Victor D. Rosenthal, M.D., M.Sc., CIC, International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC; Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Prospective data from 43,114 patients hospitalized in the Consortium's hospital ICUs for an aggregate of 272,279 days were collected. The pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABs) in the INICC ICUs was nearly 3-fold higher than reported from comparable U.S. ICUs and the overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was far higher, as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection. The frequencies of resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (MRSA), Enterobacter species to ceftriaxone, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to fluoroquinolones were also far higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 14.3% to 27.5% (ventilator-associated pneumonia).

Related Links:
US Department of Health and Human Services
International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium