Surveillance of non-influenza viruses in Kenya, 2007-2011

Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a major global problem for patient safety, and are related to significantly increasedmorbidity,mortality, hospital stays, andcosts. It’s a well known fact that conducting organized surveillance and control programs can reduce HAI rates by more than 30%. Methods&Materials:An infection control programwas implemented in our 800-bed tertiary referral hospital in August 2005. In addition to educational programs, hand hygiene and isolation practices, prospective surveillance of device-associated infections (DAI) were started in intensive care units. Results: The mean overall DAI rates in medical/surgical intensive care units in the year of 2006 were 34.5 for ventilatorassociated pneumonia (VAP), 30.7 for catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), and 5.6 for central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI), per 1000 device-days. Throughout seven years, with the increased awareness regarding infection control practices among health-care workers, DAI rates showed a distinct decline. As of 2012, DAI rates for VAP, CAUTI and CLABSI were 7.8, 6.3 and 2 infections per 1000 device-days, respectively. Conclusion: Surveillance of HAIs and introducing infection control policies in our hospital efficiently reduced DAI rates and improved health-care quality.