What is it about?
This article presents the first national estimates of the overall burden of healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance in NHS hospitals in Greece. It shows that, on any given day, about 9 out of every 100 patients hospitalized in Greece suffer from an infection acquired within the hospital. The total number of patients having a healthcare-associated infection on any given day in Greece was estimated at about 2,300 patients. This corresponds to approximately 121,000 newly affected patients each year in Greece. It was found that certain types of infections are associated with increased mortality, especially those caused by hard-to-treat superbugs (Carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacteria) which double the risk of death in the hospital. Healthcare-associated infections were also shown to increase the length of hospitalization for more than 4 additional days on average, but for infections caused by carbapenem-resistant gram negative bacteria the increase exceeded 20 additional days of hospital stay.
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Why is it important?
This assessment of the burden of healthcare-associated infections from a public healthcare provider’s perspective showed that the incidence of these infections, alongside their associated impact on length of stay and mortality in hospitals, present a significant burden to the Greek hospital system. The findings of this study, together with the increasing resistance to antibiotics in hospital settings, suggest that it is time to consider systematic interventions to reduce healthcare-associated infections, including the potential of developing a global national surveillance system. Burden estimates obtained in this study will be valuable in future evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of infection prevention programs.
Perspectives
The resources and effort required have rarely allowed multicenter studies of the global burden of all types of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) to be carried out. Consequently, only a handful of epidemiological studies have attempted to assess the impact of all HAIs on prolongation of length of stay and/or mortality in hospital-wide settings. The present study was the first of its kind in Greece and one of the few in Europe. Moreover, studies attempting to provide this information face considerable challenges. Patients with HAIs are older, suffer from more chronic diseases, and are generally more ill than patients without HAIs; consequently, patients with HAIs experience long exposure to the hospital environment before becoming infected. This study used state-of-the-art statistical methods to mitigate such confounding effects and time-dependent biases thus providing valid estimates of the overall burden and impact of HAIs in Greece.
Dr Evangelos I. Kritsotakis
University of Crete
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Prevalence, incidence burden, and clinical impact of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance: a national prevalent cohort study in acute care hospitals in Greece, Infection and Drug Resistance, October 2017, Dove Medical Press,
DOI: 10.2147/idr.s147459.
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