• Yiying Cai, Indumathi Venkatachalam, Nancy W Tee, Thean Yen Tan, Asok Kurup, Sin Yew Wong, Chian Yong Low, Yang Wang, Winnie Lee, Yi Xin Liew, Brenda Ang, David C Lye, Angela Chow, Moi Lin Ling, Helen M Oh, Cassandra A Cuvin, Say Tat Ooi, Surinder K Pada, Chong Hee Lim, Jack Wei Chieh Tan, Kean Lee Chew, Van Hai Nguyen, Dale A Fisher, Herman Goossens, Andrea L Kwa, Paul A Tambyah, Li Yang Hsu, and Kalisvar Marimuthu.
• Department of Pharmacy, Singapore General Hospital.
• Clin. Infect. Dis. 2017 May 15; 64 (suppl_2): S61-S67.

BackgroundWe conducted a national point prevalence survey (PPS) to determine the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use (AMU) in Singapore acute-care hospitals.MethodsTrained personnel collected HAI, AMU, and baseline hospital- and patient-level data of adult inpatients from 13 private and public acute-care hospitals between July 2015 and February 2016, using the PPS methodology developed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Factors independently associated with HAIs were determined using multivariable regression.ResultsOf 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. Carbapenem nonsusceptibility rates were highest in Acinetobacter species (71.9%) and P. aeruginosa (23.6%). Male sex, increasing age, surgery during current hospitalization, and presence of central venous or urinary catheters were independently associated with HAIs. A total of 2762 (51.0%; 95% CI, 49.7%-52.3%) patients were on 3611 systemic antimicrobial agents; 462 (12.8%) were prescribed for surgical prophylaxis and 2997 (83.0%) were prescribed for treatment. Amoxicillin/clavulanate was the most frequently prescribed (24.6%) antimicrobial agent.ConclusionsThis survey suggested a high prevalence of HAIs and AMU in Singapore's acute-care hospitals. While further research is necessary to understand the causes and costs of HAIs and AMU in Singapore, repeated PPSs over the next decade will be useful to gauge progress at controlling HAIs and AMU.© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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