At present, no reliable data are available on prevalence of HAIs in Ukraine. Previous official reports were never published, and data in them are of questionable reliability. This is the first study to assess the prevalence of HAIs in a standardized way with an independent team. The study was planned to be a pilot project to test procedures and instruments for a more wide-scale PPS, but, due to full-scale invasion of Russian federation, implementation of the project was delayed. So, we cannot compare the results with previous (or comparable) studies from Ukraine and the only option remaining is to compare them with available data from similar studies from another countries.
For example, HAI prevalence estimates showed realistic figures, but still lower, than in many other studies. In the latest pan-European 2023 PPS [5], out of the total of 293 581 patients included, 20 869 patients (7.1%) were reported to have at least one HAI. Of those, 19 042 (91.2%) patients had one HAI, 1 725 (8.3%) had two HAIs and 102 (0.5%) had three or more HAIs on the day of the PPS. A total of 22 806 HAIs (1.09 HAI per infected patient) were reported. The most frequently reported types of HAI were pneumonia and lower respiratory tract infection (29.3%). The second most frequently reported type of HAI was urinary tract infection (19.2%), followed by surgical site infection (16.1%), bloodstream infection (11.9%) and gastro-intestinal infection (9.5%), with C. difficile infections (CDIs) accounting for 62.1% of the latter or 5.9% of all HAIs. Systemic infections (4.2% of total) included clinical sepsis in neonates (n = 109) and treated infections of unknown origin in adults and children (SYS-CSEP, n = 625). Skin and soft tissue infections represented 3.7% of the total.
We cannot definitely say if the difference is due to lower occurrence of HAIs in Ukraine, or to under-diagnosis and under-reporting by the study team.
The prevalence of AM use (36,9%) was comparable to data from other European studies. For example, in abovementioned pan-European PPS study, the prevalence of patients receiving at least one antimicrobial in the EU/EEA sample was 35.5%. 72.6% of the patients received one antimicrobial, 22.4% received two, and 5.4% received three or more. The weighted prevalence of antimicrobial use in the EU/EEA, accounting for the number of occupied acute care beds by country, was 32.4% (95% CI: 29.7–35.1%).
Antimicrobials were administered parenterally for 80.3% of antimicrobials, and the reason for antimicrobial use was documented in the patient’s medical record for 82.7% of antimicrobials.
The prevalence of antimicrobial use was the lowest in psychiatric patients (2.8%) and the highest in intensive care patients (59.5%). Antimicrobials were the most frequently prescribed for treatment of an infection (70.2%): of a community-acquired infection (49.3%), of a hospital-acquired infection (18.4%) and an infection acquired in a long-term care facility (2.5%). Surgical prophylaxis was the indication for 14.9% of the prescriptions and was prolonged for more than one day for 48.3% of surgical prophylaxis prescriptions.
The most frequently prescribed antibiotic, ceftriaxone (ATC code J01DD04), accounted for 10.4% of all antimicrobial agents.
Information about change of antimicrobials during the treatment of an infection was reported for 83.0% of prescriptions. Most prescriptions (81.7%) were not changed from the initiation of treatment to the date of the PPS. Escalation, de-escalation and switch from intravenous to oral use were reported for 10.9%, 3.9%, and 1.9% antimicrobial prescriptions, respectively.
In a study from Austria [8], a team of researchers described an overall HAI prevalence of 6.2% (268/4321) with the highest prevalence in intensive care departments (20.9%; 49/234). In medical and surgical departments the HAI prevalence was 5.4% (95/1745) and 6.6% (105/1586), respectively. The most frequent HAIs were urinary tract infections (21.3%; 61/287) followed by pneumonia (20.6%; 59/287) and surgical site infections (17.4%; 50/287).
To compare our results to data from outside Europe, we can refer to a study from Pacific region [9]. Of the 5415 patients surveyed, there were 646 patients (11.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 11.1–12.8%) with 727 distinct HAIs, of which 331 (45.5%) were culture positive. The most common HAIs were unspecified clinical sepsis (25.5%) and pneumonia (24.8%). Staphylococcus aureus (12.9%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (11.5%) were the most common pathogens implicated in HAIs.
Speaking about national PPS from countries with comparable to Ukrainian economic and social development, we can address a study from Kosovo [10]. Despite having only 915 patients included in PPS, it contains valuable reference points. Countrywide prevalence of HAIs was 4.9%. The highest prevalence was noticed in tertiary care level in University Clinical Centre of Kosovo (UCCK) (7.2%). The most common type of HAI was surgical site infection, representing 35.5% of all reported HAIs. Prevalence of HAIs was highest in surgical departments (46.6%).
Regarding ICU-acquired infections, in a study from Brazil, by Braga et al. [12] including303 patients, 155 (51.2%) patients had an infection and 123 (79.4%) had at least one ICU-acquired infection. The most common ICU-acquired infections were pneumonia (53.0%) and bloodstream infection (27.6%). One hundred and nineteen bacterial isolates were cultured; the most common were A. baumannii (27.1%), P. aeruginosa (27.1%) and S. aureus (39.0%).
Comparing with countries of high economic development, in a Belgian study, based on earlier version of the ECDC protocol [13],the crude prevalence of patients receiving at least one antimicrobial was 27.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 26.5–27.6%). The most frequently reported indications were pneumonia (23.2%), urinary tract infections (15.2%) and skin and soft tissue infections (11.9%). The reason for antimicrobial use was recorded for 81.9% of the prescriptions
Regarding overseas data, a large-scale study from Australia [14] has shown the prevalence of patients with a HAI was 9.9% (95%CI: 8.8–11.0). Hospital prevalence rates ranged from 5.7% (95%CI:2.9–11.0) to 17.0% (95%CI:10.7–26.1). The most common HAIs were surgical site infection, pneumonia and urinary tract infection, comprising 64% of all HAIs identified.
With more target on HAI and their types, a study from Pakistan [15], based on the same ECDC protocol, shown that out of 1,553 hospitalized patients, 130 (8.4%) had symptoms of HAIs. The most common HAI was surgical site infection (40.0%), followed by bloodstream infection (21.5%), and lower respiratory tract infection (14.6%).
Our study was subject to significant limitations. The sample size was limited to 1,500 patients and 5 healthcare facilities, which is not representative for Ukraine. This survey was planned as a pilot one aimed at preparing Ukraine to participation in the Pan-European survey of point prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in 2022. The nationwide survey was postponed in 2022 due to full scale invasion of Russian Federation.
Wards that provided care to COVID-19 patients were excluded from the survey.
The pilot project did not include direct examinations of patients by the survey teams. Given that the information was collected from medical records, opportunities for detecting device-associated HAIs were limited and dependent on overall quality of medical documentation and practice in participating hospitals, i.e. if a case of HAI was missed (or purposefully hidden) by clinical team, it would be missed by survey team as well.
According to the survey results the HAI prevalence is 5.7% which drastically exceeds the data obtained from the official statistics in 2019. This highlights the need for improving the hospital surveillance system for HAIs. The largest HAI burden falls to the ICUs (16.7% of all patients in the unit, within the range of European country averages) which in combination with the highest frequency of AMs use (96.7% of all patients in the unit, almost twice the average European rate) demands more thorough monitoring of AM prescription practices with particular focus to ICU.
High SSI prevalence in surgical wards combined with the high AM use prevalence, including for surgical prophylaxis lasting over 24 hours, suggests low efficiency of the current surgical prophylaxis approach and the need in reviewing the measures for SSI prevention and antimicrobial stewardship interventions.
The low level of AM treatment de-escalation or switching from parenteral to oral administration route (used in only 1.7% and 0.6% of cases, respectively) confirms the necessity of introduction of antimicrobial stewardship interventions.
The number of bacteriologically confirmed HAI cases (30.2%), including the number of blood culture tests (2 per 100 patient admissions), confirms a low level of awareness of doctors on HAIs, including bloodstream infections and underutilization of blood cultures
It was impossible to confirm diseases caused by C. difficile due to the lack of capacity of HCF laboratories to perform relevant tests.