Epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections in Polish intensive care. A multicenter study based on active surveillance.

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of health care-associated infections (HAIs) in patients treated in Polish intensive care units (ICUs).

METHODS: This retrospective analysis was based on the results of active targeted surveillance, according to the recommendation of the ECDC (European Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, HAI-Net light protocol), conducted in 2013-2015 in seven ICUs for adults located in southern Poland (observational study).

RESULTS: The incidence of HAI was 22.6% and 28.7/1000 person-days (pds). The incidence of pneumonia (PN) was 8.0%, bloodstream infections (BSIs) 7.2% and urinary tract infections (UTIs) 3.7%. The incidence per 1000 pds was as follows: PN 10.2, BSIs 9.2 and UTIs 4.7. PN was the most common source of secondary bloodstream infection (45%); the second was UTIs (22%). Mortality (directly and indirectly) associated with HAI was 10.8% and was related to the presence of PN or primary BSIs. HAIs were usually (69.2%) caused by Gram-negative bacteria; Klebsiella spp. and nonfermenting Gram-negative rods demonstrated very high antibiotic resistance.

CONCLUSION: Despite the lack of widely implemented active targeted surveillance programmes and top-down incentives, it is possible to carry out effective surveillance of HAIs in ICUs in Poland. The results of this study are comparable with the ECDC data, but the results are alarmingly high in two fields: epidemiology of PN and BSIs and very high antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative rods, which indicate the need for intense control in this area and for further studies to clarify the source of the observed discrepancy.