Trending prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in a tertiary hospital in China during the COVID-19 pandemic

BMC Infectious Diseases

Research

Qiong Wen¹  Lanxi Lin²  Shumin Zhao²  Xinghua Zhu²  Ruiling Guo²  Dayue Liu²  Junpeng Ye²  Rong Rong²  Yongjie Yang² 

[1] Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China;Key Laboratory of Guangdong Province, Key Laboratory of National Health Commission, Zhong Shan 2nd Road, No. 58, 510080, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China;Department of Nosocomial Infection, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhong Shan 2nd Road, No. 58, 510080, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China;

关键词: Healthcare-associated infection;    Prevalence;    COVID-19;    Seasonal variation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12879-022-07952-9

 received in 2022-06-21, accepted in 2022-12-19,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to demonstrate both the four-year prevalence trend of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in a large tertiary hospital and the trend regarding the prevalence of HAIs following the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in order to provide evidence of hospital infection management during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsBased on the hospital’s electronic nosocomial infection databases related to HAIs, we retrospectively identified the HAI cases to assess the epidemiological characteristics of HAIs from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021, in a large tertiary hospital in China. Similarly, the trends of HAIs after the COVID-19 outbreak and the seasonal variation of HAIs were further analyzed.ResultsThe HAI cases (n = 7833) were identified from the inpatients (n = 483,258) during the 4 years. The most frequently occurring underlying cause of HAIs was respiratory tract infections (44.47%), followed by bloodstream infections (11.59%), and urinary tract infections (8.69%). The annual prevalence of HAIs decreased from 2.39% in 2018 to 1.41% in 2021 (P = 0.032), with the overall prevalence of HAIs significantly decreasing since the outbreak of COVID-19 (2.20% in 2018–2019 vs. 1.44% in 2020–2021, P < 0.001). The prevalence of respiratory tract infections decreased most significantly; whereas, overall, the prevalence of HAIs was significantly greater during the winter compared with the rest of the year.ConclusionsNot only did the annual prevalence of HAIs decrease from 2018 to 2021, but it also significantly decreased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly respiratory tract infections. These results provide evidence for the need to prevent HAIs, especially during the winter season.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

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Fig. 1