A recent European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)point prevalence survey shows that healthcare-associated infections are still a major public health problem, with one in 18 patients in European hospitals affected

The first Europe-wide point prevalence survey on healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use estimates that on any given day, about 80 000 patients – or one in 18 patients – in European hospitals have at least one healthcare-associated infection.

Conducted in more than 1 000 hospitals in 30 European countries, the survey provides the most comprehensive database on healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in European acute care hospitals to date. The data are published as a report and also available online as an interactive database.

The data report and the database include data on the most commonly reported healthcare-associated infections and involved microorganisms, how often and for which indications antimicrobial drugs are being used and indicators on infection control structures and processes in European hospitals.

The prevalence of healthcare-associated infections was the highest among patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in these hospitals, where 19.5% patients had at least one. The most common types of healthcare-associated infection in these ICUs were respiratory tract infections and bloodstream infections.

Overall, of a total of 15 000 reported healthcare-associated infections, the most commonly reported types were respiratory tract infections (pneumonia, 19.4%; lower respiratory tract infections, 4.1%), surgical site infections (19.6%) and urinary tract infections (19.0%).

The survey also confirms that a large proportion of patients receive antimicrobial agents while being hospitalised. ECDC estimates that more than 400 000 patients, i.e. one in three patients, receive at least one antimicrobial agent on any given day in European hospitals. For 2011-2012, the survey showed that in Malta there were 30 to <35% of patients receiving at least one antimicrobial agent.

Based on the survey results, ECDC has made recommendations that should be further developed and implemented across Europe – limiting the use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials, reducing the unnecessary prolongation of surgical prophylaxis, promoting earlier change from parenteral to oral administration of antimicrobials, improving the documentation of the reason for the antimicrobial use in the patients’ charts, increasing the skills for surveillance of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use, and raising awareness of healthcare-associated infections among thousands of healthcare workers across Europe were the main contributions of the point prevalence survey.

Healthcare-associated infections are infections acquired by patients during their stay in a hospital or another healthcare setting. Although some of these infections can be treated easily, others may more seriously affect a patient’s health, increasing their stay in the hospital and hospital costs, and causing considerable distress to these patients.

A prevalence survey is a count of the number of patients with a particular condition/treatment (in this case either a healthcare-associated infection or an antimicrobial agent) at a particular time (in this case a day), as a proportion of the total number of patients who are hospitalised at that particular time.

ECDC will organise a second Europe-wide point prevalence survey in all Member States in 2016-2017 and will continue supporting the organisation, data collection, validation and analysis of national surveys during the period 2013-2015.

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