Device-associated healthcare-associated infections surveillance in an intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in COVID-19 patients

Abstract

Background: Surveillance for healthcare-associated infections has a major role in hospital infection prevention and control programmes. In the present study, we estimated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on device-associated healthcare-associated infections (DA-HAI) ventilator-associated events (VAE), central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). Methods: This was a prospective surveillance study from January 2021 to June 2021 conducted in a 30-bed intensive care unit (ICU) of tertiary care, and academic healthcare organisations. Targeted surveillance was carried out by the National Healthcare Safety Network surveillance requirements of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results: A total of 249 patients admitted to the ICU with 2920 patient days of surveillance data were included during the study. A DA-HAIs attack rate of 17.67/100 admissions was seen during the study. The device utilisation ratios of central line, ventilator and urinary catheters were 0.49, 0.60 and 0.83, respectively. VAE, CLABSI and CAUTI rates were 12.44, 6.91 and 9.01/1000 device days, respectively. Among 54 DA-HAIs reported, pathogens could be identified for 41 DA-HAI cases. The most common organisms causing VAE, CAUTI and CLABSI were Acinetobacter baumannii (42.1%), Escherichia coli (30%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (41.7%), respectively. Of the Gram-negative organisms 61.7% were carbapenem resistant and 50% of Staphylococcus aureuswere methicillin resistant. Conclusions: The present study shows high rates of ICU-acquired DA-HAIs and moderately high resistance patterns of the organisms causing HAIs, which poses a great risk to patient safety.