Prevention and Surveillance of Healthcare Associated Infections

Abstract

Neonatal sepsis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in low-and middle-income countries. Infections contribute to 20.8% of neonatal mortality in India. 1 The morbidities related to neonatal infections include prolonged hospital stay, increased cost of care, retinopathy of prematurity, periventricular leukomalacia, and abnormal neurodevelopment. Neonatal sepsis is classified as early onset sepsis (EOS) for symptom onset before 72 hours of birth, and as late onset sepsis (LOS) for symptoms beginning 72 hours after birth. EOS is related to maternal infection and LOS is often hospital acquired. Hospital/healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are potentially preventable. Various principles underline formulation of infection prevention and control strategies. These include, but not limited to improving hand hygiene practices, good housekeeping practices, improving nurse to patient ratio, human milk usage, probiotics, kangaroo mother care, decreasing use of invasive devices and antibiotic prophylaxis, The objective of this guideline is to improve the quality of care and outcomes for preterm and term infants by providing recommendations on infection prevention and control strategies. The guideline development group short-listed 12 research questions to be of the highest priority for development of recommendations. A separate search strategy was used for each of the priority questions to identify studies for inclusion in this review. At least two or more databases were searched to identify eligible studies. Search was restricted to studies in English language. A standardized form was used to extract relevant information from studies. Systematically extracted data included study identifiers, setting, design, participants, sample size, intervention or exposure, control or comparison group, outcome measures, and