Abstract
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a potentially serious threat to elderly people living in longterm care facilities. Therefore, the European HALT (Healthcare-associated infections in long-term care facilities) project was launched in 2008. HAIs and the use of antibiotics were studied in all 40 nursing homes (100% response) in the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from January to March 2011, using the HALT protocol. Of the 3,732 residents in the homes, 4.3% (n=161) had either signs or symptoms of infections and/or were on oral antibiotics. The most common infections were urinary tract infections (n=45; 1.2%), followed by infections of the respiratory tract (n=41; 1.1%) and skin except mycosis (n=25; 0.7%). The overall prevalence of oral antibiotic use was 2.4% (n=90). The most frequently prescribed oral antibiotics were quinolones (n=31), cephalosporins (n=19), penicillins (n=11) and co-trimoxazole (n=11). The prevalence of HAIs was about the same as that in a European pilot study carried out in November 2009 (5%), but was higher than in several national surveys carried out between May and September 2010 (1.6–3.6%).
Highlights
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are among the most important threats to health in Europe, especially those caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria [1]
Hygiene and appropriate use of antibiotics is necessary for prevention of such infections, in hospitals and in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) for elderly people
National HALT programmes were established and in 2009, a pilot point prevalence study on HAIs and antibiotic use was performed in 117 nursing homes in 13 European countries
Summary
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are among the most important threats to health in Europe, especially those caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria [1]. A European project called HALT (Healthcare-associated infections in long-term care facilities) was launched by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in 2008 [16,17,18]. National HALT programmes were established and in 2009, a pilot point prevalence study on HAIs and antibiotic use was performed in 117 nursing homes in 13 European countries [16]. In summer 2010, a point prevalence survey on HAIs and antibiotic use in European LTCFs was carried out, coordinated by ECDC, with 722 nursing homes across 25 European countries taking part [17].The aims of the HALT project are to measure and describe HAI, antibiotic use, antimicrobial resistance and current infection control/prevention practices in LTCFs all over Europe in order to establish baseline rates and identify priorities for improvement [16]. Data from the pilot study are available [16], as well as from national surveys in Ireland, Scotland, Germany and the Netherlands in 2010 [19,20,21,22]
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