The International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium report, data summary for 2002-2007, issued January 2008

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from 2002 through 2007in 98 intensive care units (ICU's) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study, using Centers for Disease Controland Prevention (CDC) National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (NNIS) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infection, we collected prospective data from 43,114 patients hospitalized in the Consortium's hospital for an aggregate of 272, 279 days. Although device utilization in the INICC ICU's was remarkably similar to that reported from US ICU's in the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were markedly higher in the ICU's of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABs)in the INICC ICU's, 9.2 per 1000 CL-days, is nearly 3-fold higher than the 2.4-5.3 per 1000 CL-days reported from comparable US ICUs, and the overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher, 19.5 vs 1.1-3.6 per 1000 ventilator-days, as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection, 6.5 versus3.4-5.2 per 1000 catheter-days. Most strikingly, the frequencies of resistance of staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (MRSA) (80.8% vs 48.1%), Enterobacterspecies to ceftriaxone (50.8% vs 17.8%, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to Fluoroquinolones (52.4% vs29.1%)were also higher in the Consortium ICU's, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections rangedfrom 14.3% (CLABs) to 27.5% (ventilator-associated pneumonia). (Am J Infect Control 2008; 36: 627-37.)