A one-day prevalence survey of hospital-acquired infections in Lebanon

A one-day survey was carried out in 14 acute care hospitals in Lebanon in M ay 1997, to determine the prevalence of nosocomial infection (NI) by site o f infection, hospital department, micro-organism and pathology. Hospitals ( N = 14) with more than 50 beds were selected at random from the official Le banese Health Ministry Registration Directory. All patients who presented t hat day on the ward and were not admitted or discharged, were included. Dem ographic, clinical and bacteriological data were recorded by two investigat ors, from medical chart review and by physical examinations performed by a trained physician. The overall prevalence of NI was 6.8% (95% CI: 5.1-8.4). Of 834 patients, the most frequent site of NI was the respiratory tract (3 0% of NI), followed by surgical site wound infection (28%) and urinary trac t infection (18%). Pseudomonas sp. was the predominant pathogen, being isol ated from 15 out of 71 episodes of NI. By logistic regression analysis, eac h additional day of hospital stay multiplied the risk of NI by 5%. Signific ant risk factors for NI included central i.v. catheter, adjusted odds ratio (OR 5.95, 95% Cl: 2.27-15.49) and urinary catheter (OR 2.86, 95% Cl: 1.50- 5.65). The presence of immunocompromising conditions also increased the ris k of NI. (C) 2001 The Hospital Infection Society.