Summary
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 in 28 countries. After national validation, we estimated that 6.5% (cumulative 95% confidence interval (cCI): 5.4–7.8%) patients in acute care hospitals had at least one HAI (country-weighted prevalence). On any given day, 98,166 patients (95% cCI: 81,022–117,484) in acute care hospitals had an HAI; 3.8 million (95% cCI: 3.1–4.5 million) patients acquired an HAI each year. Our study confirmed a high annual number of HAI in healthcare facilities in the EU/EEA.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the participating hospitals and long-term care facilities in EU/EEA countries, and in particular the staff that collected, validated and entered the data during the PPS and the national teams that coordinated the PPS in each participating country and performed the validation studies.
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T. Kärki, D. Plachouras, A. Cassini, and C. Suetens declare that they have no competing interests.
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Kärki, T., Plachouras, D., Cassini, A. et al. Burden of healthcare-associated infections in European acute care hospitals. Wien Med Wochenschr 169 (Suppl 1), 3–5 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10354-018-0679-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10354-018-0679-2