Covid patients more at risk of hospital-associated infections: Study

New York, April 15 : People admitted to hospital for the treatment of Covid-19 are likely to have a higher incidence of healthcare associated infections, finds a study.The study, published online in JAMA Network Open, showed that the occurrence of central line-associated bloodstream infection, catheter-associated urinary tract infection, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia was between 2.

7 and 3.7-fold higher in the Covid-19 population."Patients with Covid-19 may require additional protective care to prevent the infections," said Kenneth E.Sands, along with other authors from the HCA Healthcare in Tennessee, US.For the study, the team conducted a cross-sectional analysis of more than 5 million hospitalisations between 2020 and 2022.The results showed that the incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infection was nearly fourfold higher among the Covid-19 population than the non-Covid-19 population (25.4 versus 6.9 per 100,000 patient-days).Similar trends were seen for catheter-associated urinary tract infection (16.5 versus 6.1) and for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia (11.2 versus 3.7).However, the study found that occurrence of these infections among patients hospitalised without Covid-19 did not increase significantly."Despite the strain on the healthcare system, the increase in healthcare-associated infections was not observed in the non-Covid-19 population, suggesting that key safety processes were maintained," the team said.

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