Zasady prenumeraty miesięcznika Wiadomości Lekarskie na rok 2019 Zamówienia na prenumeratę przyjmuje Wydawnictwo Aluna

INTRODUCTION
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are one of the 
most common adverse events in patient care and account 
for substantial morbidity and mortality [1, 2]. Despite 
major advances in infection control interventions, HAI 
remain a major public health problem and patient safety 
threat worldwide [3]. According to published national 
or multicentre studies, pooled HAI prevalence in mixed 
patient populations was from 7.6% to 9.5% in high-income 
countries [4-6].
HAIs are serious patient safety problems in intensive 
care units (ICUs). The risk of acquiring HAI is significantly 
higher in ICUs, with approximately 30% of patients affected 
by at least one episode of HAI with substantial associated 
morbidity and mortality. Pooled cumulative incidence 
density was 17.0 episodes per 1000 patient-days in adult 
high-risk patients in industrialized countries. By contrast, 
the incidence of ICU-acquired infection among adult 
patients in low- and middle-income countries ranged from 
4.4% up to 88.9% and pooled cumulative incidence density 
was 42.7 episodes per 1000 patient-days [7, 8].
In Ukraine, a national network for the prospective 
surveillance of HAIs in all wards is not in place. To identify 
HAI prevention targets and reduce thus disparities between 
countries, ongoing surveillance is necessary. However, 
resources are severely limited in Ukraine, creating 
difficulties implementing surveillance and establishing 
effective measures for infection control and HAI preventio. 
In Ukraine, efforts to improve infection control training 
and begin HAI surveillance have been underway. However, 
previous reports of HAIs in Ukraine were limited to 
surgical site infections (SSI) and did not address the broad 
spectrum of HAIs in ICU [9, 10].
THE AIM
The objective of the current study was to evaluate the 
prevalence of HAIs and antimicrobial resistance of the 
responsible pathogens in Ukrainian ICUs.