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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital

The COVID-19 pandemic has massively affected healthcare systems globally, causing a possible reduction in attention to traditional infection prevention programs. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and the use of antimicrobials in an...

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Autores principales: Deiana, Giovanna, Arghittu, Antonella, Gentili, Davide, Dettori, Marco, Palmieri, Alessandra, Masia, Maria Dolores, Azara, Antonio, Castiglia, Paolo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9498585/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36141209
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10091597
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author Deiana, Giovanna
Arghittu, Antonella
Gentili, Davide
Dettori, Marco
Palmieri, Alessandra
Masia, Maria Dolores
Azara, Antonio
Castiglia, Paolo
author_facet Deiana, Giovanna
Arghittu, Antonella
Gentili, Davide
Dettori, Marco
Palmieri, Alessandra
Masia, Maria Dolores
Azara, Antonio
Castiglia, Paolo
author_sort Deiana, Giovanna
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has massively affected healthcare systems globally, causing a possible reduction in attention to traditional infection prevention programs. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and the use of antimicrobials in an Italian University Hospital and to investigate whether the intensification of hospital infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the prevalence of bacterial HAIs. A point prevalence survey was conducted according to the simplified ECDC protocol. The survey identified a local HAI prevalence of 9.0%, revealing an increase compared to pre-pandemic values (7.3%). The survey also identified an antimicrobial exposure of 40.8%, revealing a decrease in their use compared to the study carried out in the pre-pandemic era (44.6%). Among the organizational challenges experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the greater attention paid to infection prevention measures aimed at reducing SARS-CoV-2, many healthcare facilities had to contend with the controlled availability of personnel, physical space limitations and a large number of patients. Active surveillance in hospital wards and the consequent reporting by personnel specialized in infection control is fundamental for hospitals to recognize gaps in prevention and report any observed increases in HAIs.
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spelling pubmed-94985852022-09-23 Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital Deiana, Giovanna Arghittu, Antonella Gentili, Davide Dettori, Marco Palmieri, Alessandra Masia, Maria Dolores Azara, Antonio Castiglia, Paolo Healthcare (Basel) Article The COVID-19 pandemic has massively affected healthcare systems globally, causing a possible reduction in attention to traditional infection prevention programs. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and the use of antimicrobials in an Italian University Hospital and to investigate whether the intensification of hospital infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the prevalence of bacterial HAIs. A point prevalence survey was conducted according to the simplified ECDC protocol. The survey identified a local HAI prevalence of 9.0%, revealing an increase compared to pre-pandemic values (7.3%). The survey also identified an antimicrobial exposure of 40.8%, revealing a decrease in their use compared to the study carried out in the pre-pandemic era (44.6%). Among the organizational challenges experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the greater attention paid to infection prevention measures aimed at reducing SARS-CoV-2, many healthcare facilities had to contend with the controlled availability of personnel, physical space limitations and a large number of patients. Active surveillance in hospital wards and the consequent reporting by personnel specialized in infection control is fundamental for hospitals to recognize gaps in prevention and report any observed increases in HAIs. MDPI 2022-08-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9498585/ /pubmed/36141209 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10091597 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Deiana, Giovanna
Arghittu, Antonella
Gentili, Davide
Dettori, Marco
Palmieri, Alessandra
Masia, Maria Dolores
Azara, Antonio
Castiglia, Paolo
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital
title Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital
title_full Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital
title_fullStr Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital
title_full_unstemmed Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital
title_short Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of HAIs and the Use of Antibiotics in an Italian University Hospital
title_sort impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the prevalence of hais and the use of antibiotics in an italian university hospital
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9498585/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36141209
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10091597
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