Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Nov;23(46):1800516.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.46.1800516.

Prevalence of healthcare-associated infections, estimated incidence and composite antimicrobial resistance index in acute care hospitals and long-term care facilities: results from two European point prevalence surveys, 2016 to 2017

Affiliations

Prevalence of healthcare-associated infections, estimated incidence and composite antimicrobial resistance index in acute care hospitals and long-term care facilities: results from two European point prevalence surveys, 2016 to 2017

Carl Suetens et al. Euro Surveill. 2018 Nov.

Erratum in

  • Erratum for Euro Surveill. 2018;23(46).
    Eurosurveillance editorial team. Eurosurveillance editorial team. Euro Surveill. 2018 Nov;23(47):181122e1. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.47.181122e1. Euro Surveill. 2018. PMID: 30482262 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

Point prevalence surveys of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and antimicrobial use in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) from 2016 to 2017 included 310,755 patients from 1,209 acute care hospitals (ACH) in 28 countries and 117,138 residents from 2,221 long-term care facilities (LTCF) in 23 countries. After national validation, we estimated that 6.5% (cumulative 95% confidence interval (cCI): 5.4-7.8%) patients in ACH and 3.9% (95% cCI: 2.4-6.0%) residents in LTCF had at least one HAI (country-weighted prevalence). On any given day, 98,166 patients (95% cCI: 81,022-117,484) in ACH and 129,940 (95% cCI: 79,570-197,625) residents in LTCF had an HAI. HAI episodes per year were estimated at 8.9 million (95% cCI: 4.6-15.6 million), including 4.5 million (95% cCI: 2.6-7.6 million) in ACH and 4.4 million (95% cCI: 2.0-8.0 million) in LTCF; 3.8 million (95% cCI: 3.1-4.5 million) patients acquired an HAI each year in ACH. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to selected AMR markers was 31.6% in ACH and 28.0% in LTCF. Our study confirmed a high annual number of HAI in healthcare facilities in the EU/EEA and indicated that AMR in HAI in LTCF may have reached the same level as in ACH.

Keywords: AMR; HAI; LTCF; PPS; antimicrobial resistance; burden; healthcare-associated infections; hospitals; long-term care facilities; point prevalence survey.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Correlations of composite index of antimicrobial resistance, EU/EEA countries and Serbia, 2016–2017

References

    1. Cassini A, Plachouras D, Eckmanns T, Abu Sin M, Blank HP, Ducomble T, et al. Burden of six healthcare-associated infections on European population health: estimating incidence-based disability-adjusted life years through a population prevalence-based modelling study. PLoS Med. 2016;13(10):e1002150. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002150 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cassini A, Colzani E, Pini A, Mangen MJ, Plass D, McDonald SA, et al. Impact of infectious diseases on population health using incidence-based disability-adjusted life years (DALYs): results from the Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe study, European Union and European Economic Area countries, 2009 to 2013. Euro Surveill. 2018;23(16):17-00454. 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.16.17-00454 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Point prevalence survey of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in European acute care hospitals, 2011-2012. Stockholm: ECDC; 2013. Available from: http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/healthcare-associ... - PubMed
    1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Point prevalence survey of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in European long-term care facilities. May–September 2010. Stockholm: ECDC; 2014. Available from: https://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/media/en/publications/Publicat...
    1. Suetens C. Healthcare-associated infections in European long-term care facilities: how big is the challenge? Euro Surveill. 2012;17(35):20259. - PubMed

Substances