A one-day prevalence survey of hospital-acquired infections in Lebanon

A one-day survey was carried out in 14 acute care hospitals in Lebanon in May 1997, to determine the prevalence of nosocomial infection (NI) by site of infection, hospital department, micro-organism and pathology. Hospitals (N=14) with more than 50 beds were selected at random from the official Lebanese Health Ministry Registration Directory. All patients who presented that day on the ward and were not admitted or discharged, were included. Demographic, clinical and bacteriological data were recorded by two investigators, from medical chart review and by physical examinations performed by a trained physician. The overall prevalence of NI was 6.8% (95% CI: 5.1-8.4). Of 834 patients, the most frequent site of NI was the respiratory tract (30% of NI), followed by surgical site wound infection (28%) and urinary tract infection (18%). Pseudomonas sp. was the predominant pathogen, being isolated from 15 out of 71 episodes of NI. By logistic regression analysis, each additional day of hospital stay multiplied the risk of NI by 5%. Significant risk factors for NI included central i.v. catheter, adjusted odds ratio (OR 5.95, 95% CI: 2.27-15.49) and urinary catheter (OR 2.86, 95% CI: 1.50-5.65). The presence of immunocompromising conditions also increased the risk of NI.