Prevalence of Hospital-Acquired Infection in Intensive Care Unit: A Hospital-Based Study from A Tertiary Care Hospital of Bihar

BACKGROUNDHospital-Acquired Infection (HAI) have taken on a new dimension with outbreaks of increasingly resistant organisms becoming common. Protocol-based infection control practices in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are extremely important. Moreover, baseline information of the prevalence of HAI helps in planning specific implementations of infection control program. The aim of this study was to know the prevalence of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) and its isolates with their antibiogram in the medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients in IGIMS, Patna.METHODSIn our study 187 pts. were suspected having HAI from whom 304 samples from different sources like respiratory samples, urine, blood and pus were collected. The specimens were cultured onto suitable culture media like MacConkey agar, Sheep blood agar, Chocolate agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA). Culture plates were incubated aerobically at 370 degrees C for 24-48 hours.RESULTSPrevalence of HAI in the present study was found to be 18.97%. Out of 304 samples processed, 120 (75.95%) was bacterial isolates and 38 (24.05%) was fungal isolates. Out of bacterial isolates, Escherichia coli was 28.33%, and among fugal isolates yeast other than Candida albicans (YOCA) was 19%.CONCLUSIONSThis study provides baseline information of HAIs and associated risk factors for future surveillance. Efforts are needed to strengthen infection control programs, appropriate national strategies for prevention of HAIs, antibiotic stewardship and repeated prevalence studies in our institution in order to decrease the prevalence of HAI.