According to a recent study led by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a staggering 95 percent of healthcare-associated infections, including bloodstream infections, ventilator pneumonia, and urinary tract infections, are attributed to medical devices. The study, conducted in collaboration with 121 hospitals across India, shed light on the alarming rate of antimicrobial resistance observed in these infections.
These findings underscore the urgent need for effective infection control measures and antimicrobial stewardship programs to combat the rising threat of device-related infections and antimicrobial resistance in healthcare settings.
Dr. Purva Mathur, Professor of Microbiology at AIIMS Trauma Centre, emphasized the need to address this issue. The surveillance network responsible for this study, established and led by the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center at AIIMS, received technical support from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and partnered with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) also provided partial funding and technical support for the initiative.
The study revealed that the most common bacteria causing these infections were E. coli, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Staphylococcus aureus. Of concern, the susceptibility of E. coli to the antibiotic imipenem declined from 81% in 2017 to 66% in 2022, while Klebsiella pneumoniae’s susceptibility dropped from 59 percent in 2017 to 42 percent in 2022.