One-day point prevalence of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in four countries in Latin America

• Published in: International journal of infectious diseases 2019-09, Vol.86, p.157-166
• Main Authors: Huerta-Gutiérrez, R., Braga, L., Camacho-Ortiz, A., Díaz-Ponce, Humberto, García-Mollinedo, L., Guzmán-Blanco, M., Valderrama-Beltrán, S., Landaeta-Nezer, E., Moreno-Espinosa, S., Morfín-Otero, Rayo, Rodríguez-Zulueta, P., Rosado-Buzzo, A., Rosso-Suárez, Fernando, Trindade-Clemente, W., Wiltgen, Denusa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibiotics; Healthcare-associated infections; Infectology; Nosocomial infections; One day prevalence; Public hospitals
• ISSN: 1201-9712; 1878-3511
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2019.06.016

•2,740 individuals were surveyed, in 11 hospitals across 4 Latin-American countries.•On average, 12.26% of the participants surveyed had one HAI.•Venezuela resulted with the highest proportion of HAIs and Brazil the lowest.•Mexico and Venezuela were the countries that most frequently used antibiotics. Experience in the region shows that in some countries there is very good surveillance of Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in health services, but there is no national data consistently in all countries. Therefore, we set to estimate the total burden of HAIs and antimicrobial use in acute care hospitals in Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia using the one-day point prevalence methodology. The survey was conducted between June and July 2016. In each ward or unit, HAIs and antimicrobial use data were collected on a single day by a trained team of researchers. Also, for each patient, we collected data on risk factors for infections. One out of ten individuals surveyed had at least one healthcare-associated infection (HAI). Pneumonia and surgical site infections were the most relevant among the surveyed countries. Most of the surveyed participants, regardless of their HAI status, received antibiotics except the individuals managed in Brazil. Carbapenems and third-generation Cephalosporins were among the most frequently used antibiotics. Our results add to WHO’s recent efforts to understand HAIs prevalence and antibiotic consumption in low and middle-income countries, of which we studied three that were not included in their last report.