Prevalence of healthcare-associated infection at a tertiary hospital in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa

Figures & data

Table 1: Point prevalence of healthcare-associated infections according to patient characteristics

Factor	All patients (n)	Patients with HCAI (n)	Prevalence of HCAI (%)	OR (95% CI)
	326	25	7.67	–
Sex:
Male	152	12	7.89	1.06 (0.46–2.40)
Female	174	13	7.47	1
Age groups (years):
0–5	88	5	5.68	1.39 (0.15–12.46)
6–15	15	1	6.67	1.64 (0.10–28.41)
16–30	50	4	8.00	2.00 (0.21–18.93)
31–50	70	9	12.86	3.39 (0.41–28.30)
51–70	78	5	6.41	1.58 (0.18–14.18)
> 70	24	1	4.17	1
Per ward:
General surgery	78	6	7.69	1
Internal medicine	73	3	4.11	0.51 (0.12–2.14)
Paediatrics	98	6	6.12	0.78 (0.24–2.53)
Orthopaedics	45	7	15.56	2.21 (0.69–7.05)
Obstetrics and gynaecology	27	3	11.11	1.5 (0.35–6.47)
Ophthalmology	5	0	0	0

CI: confidence interval; HCAI: healthcare-associated infection; OR: odds ratio.

Figure 1: Boxplot of days in hospital for patients with and without healthcare-associated infections.

Table 2: Prevalence rates according to the type of healthcare-associated infections (n = 26)

Type of HCAI	Types of organisms isolated	Number of occurrences (n)	Percentage of total number of HCAIs (%) n = 26	Prevalence of HCAI by infection type among patients surveyed (%) n = 326
Primary bloodstream infection	Klebsiella pneumoniae	3	11.5	0.92
Surgical site infection		15	57.7	4.60
Superficial incisional	Staphylococcus aureus; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Aeromonas species	10	38.5	3.07
Deep incisional	Acinetobacter baumannii; Staphylococcus aureus	4	15.4	1.23
Organ/space	nil cultured	1	3.8	0.31
Lower respiratory tract infection	nil cultured	3	11.5	0.92
Urinary tract infection	Candida albicans; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Enterobacter cloacae	5	19.2	1.53

HCAI: healthcare-associated infection.

Table 3: Risk factors for healthcare-associated infections (n = 326)

Risk factor	Prevalence of HCAI in patients with and without risk factors						OR (95% CI)
	With risk factor			Without risk factor
	All patients (n)	Patients with HCAI (n)	Prevalence (%)	All patients (n)	Patients with HCAI (n)	Prevalence (%)
Peripheral vascular catheter	166	16	9.64	160	9	5.63	1.79 (0.76–4.18)
Surgery	85	14	16.47	241	11	4.56	4.12 (1.79–9.49)
Immunodeficiency	74	6	8.11	252	19	7.54	1.08 (0.42–2.82)
Diabetes	46	3	6.52	280	22	7.86	0.82 (0.24–2.85)
Urinary catheter	34	5	14.71	292	20	6.85	2.35 (0.82–6.72)
Steroids	31	1	3.23	295	24	8.14	0.38 (0.05–2.88)
Blood transfusion	25	1	4.00	301	24	7.97	0.48 (0.06–3.71)
Neutropenia	11	1	9.09	315	24	7.62	1.21 (0.15–9.88)

CI: confidence interval; HCAI: healthcare-associated infection; OR: odds ratio.

Table 4: Comparative healthcare-associated infection rates for Kimberley Hospital Complex and South Africa, Argentina, Ireland, Wales and England

	HCAI prevalence (%)
Location	Overall	Primary bloodstream infection	Lower respiratory tract infection	Surgical site infection (surgical patients only)	Urinary tract infection
Kimberley Hospital Complex	7.67	0.92	0.92	4.60	1.53
Gauteng, South Africa^Citation6,Citation9	9.73	5.01	2.88	3.00	1.53
Argentina^Citation6	11.30	1.46	3.32	10.19	3.13
Republic of Ireland^Citation6,Citation16	4.87	0.49	0.86	4.56	1.10
Northern Ireland^Citation6,Citation16	5.43	0.38	1.29	3.69	1.84
Wales^Citation6,Citation16	6.35	0.56	0.68	4.56	1.08
England^Citation6,Citation16	8.19	0.62	1.27	4.65	1.80

Durlach R, McIlvenny G, Newcombe RG, et al. Prevalence survey of healthcare-associated infections in Argentina; comparison with England, Wales, Northern Ireland and South Africa. J Hosp Infect. 2012;80(3):217–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2011.12.001

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Duse AG, Doherty L, McIlvenny G, et al. Health-care associated infection (HCAI) prevalence survey: the South African pilot. Sixteenth Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America; Chicago, IL, USA, 2006.

 Google Scholar

Smyth ET, McIlvenny G, Enstone JE, et al. Four country healthcare associated infection prevalence survey 2006: overview of the results. J Hosp Infect. 2008;69(3):230–48. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2008.04.020

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar