Authors reply: Importance of standardisation of HAI definitions in interpretation of international and/or multinational prevalence studies

To the editor: We would like to thank M Cotter et al. for their comments regarding the application of uniform definitions for infections in the nursing home setting. In our article we indeed used a ‘suspicion of infection’, i.e. having at least one symptom or sign on the healthcare-associated infections in long-term care facilities (HALT) score list. In this first European HALT study it was decided to register signs and symptoms of disease separately so that Mc Geer criteria might be applied afterwards. Previously, Rothan-Tondeur et al argued that it is time to revise the Mc Geer criteria [1].