A 6‐year prospective surveillance of healthcare‐associated infections in a neonatal intensive care unit from southern part of Turkey

Aim: To report the incidence of healthcare‐associated infections (HAIs), site of infection and bacterial epidemiology in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in a university hospital in Adana, Turkey, between 2001 and 2006. Methods: During these years, HAIs were collected by an active surveillance system. Results: Five hundred one of 2832 infants hospitalised more than 72 h had 1124 HAI. The HAI incidence and incidence density ranged between 14.1 and 29.7 infections/100 patients, and 10.9–17.3 infections/1000 patient days within the study period; 61.5% of HAIs were ventilator‐associated infections; 26.2% were bloodstream infections; 3.5% were urinary tract infections; 3.5% were necrotising enterocolitis (Stages II and III) and 1.4% was meningitis. The most frequent pathogens were gram‐negative pathogens (75.6% of all infections) followed by gram‐positive micro‐organisms (21.4%) and Candida species (3.0%). Birthweight, gestational age and Apgar scores were lower and overall mortality rate (32.9% vs. 19.7%) and number of inpatient days were higher in patients with HAIs (for all P < 0.001) when compared with those who did not have HAIs. Furthermore, HAI rate was inversely related to birthweight (P < 0.001). Conclusion: In this study, the overall infection rate is high compared with developed countries and predominant micro‐organisms are gram‐negative enteric rods. These results strongly suggest the need for improving measures for prevention and control of HAIs in this hospital.