COVID raises rates of other hospital infections

(HealthDay) —The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a resurgence of other infections hitting hospital patients, according to a US government study.

The study, carried out by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlights the heavy toll the pandemic has taken. He revealed that the rates of several types of hospital-acquired infections increased after the pandemic hit U.S. shores in 2020.

Compared to the same period in 2019, more hospital patients suffered from life-threatening infections related to medical devices, including ventilators and tubes placed in blood vessels. There has been a similar increase in antibiotic-resistant staph infections, which can enter the bloodstream and lungs.

The trend is baffling, in part because US hospitals had made steady progress in preventing these infections before the pandemic.

“What we have learned during this pandemic is that the impact of COVID-19 is far-reaching,” said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, associate director of hospital-acquired infection prevention programs at the CDC.

The unfortunate fact, he said, is that COVID-19 has created a “perfect storm” of circumstances that has fueled the rise in hospital-acquired infections.

There was the large number of patients that flooded many hospitals – very sick people and often in need of intensive care. Additionally, Srinivasan said, these patients typically had pre-existing health conditions and often had to stay on ventilators and other medical devices for extended periods of time, increasing the risk of infections.

Add to that the challenges facing healthcare providers.

Earlier in the pandemic, Srinivasan said, “We didn’t have enough gowns, we didn’t have enough masks, we didn’t have enough respirators.”

As a result, protective equipment intended to be discarded after a single use was sometimes reused. And, Srinivasan said, healthcare workers were getting sick or needing to be quarantined, fueling staff shortages and exacerbating provider burnout.

“This does not in any way mean that the health workers did not do their job,” Srinivasan said. “It was a failure of the system.”

The results – published on September 2 in the journal Infection control and hospital epidemiology—Are based on data from a national surveillance system that tracks healthcare-related infections. CDC epidemiologist Lindsey Weiner-Lastinger led the study.

Researchers found that at the start of 2020, these infections were generally down compared to the same time in 2019. That has changed with the pandemic.

The largest increase was in blood infections related to central catheters, which are catheters placed in large arteries to deliver drugs or fluids. These infections increased by around 47% in the second half of 2020.

Infections related to ventilators, urinary catheters and antibiotics Staphylococcus aureus the bacteria were also all in place.

“This is not surprising for those of us in the field,” said Dr. Cornelius Clancy, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. “National data reflects what we have seen.”

He highlighted the general pressure on hospital systems and the “inordinate resources” that COVID care has demanded, as factors. Some “bread and butter” practices that prevent healthcare-associated infections, Clancy said, might not receive the same attention as they normally would.

“This is another example of how you can’t separate COVID from everything that’s going on in healthcare,” said Clancy, who is also with the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

COVID not only affects people who are sick with it, he said, but the health system at large.

That’s not to say people should be afraid of going to the hospital, said Clancy and Srinivasan.

“People definitely need to seek the care they need,” Clancy said.

And even amid the new outbreaks of COVID in some US hospitals, there is reason to expect the risk of nosocomial infections to be lower compared to last year.

On the one hand, Srinivasan said, hospitals are now more aware of the problem. Healthcare workers are also more experienced in managing COVID patients and more protected against infection through vaccination.

For the general public, the study highlights the importance of getting vaccinated to reduce the risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID.

“One of the best ways to prevent infections associated with healthcare is vaccination,” Srinivasan said.

“Even with the delta variant,” he added, “the vaccines are extremely effective in preventing hospitalization.”

Clancy agreed. “The data on immunization is indisputable,” he said.

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