Nosocomial infections in a developing Middle East hospital

The prevalence and pattern of nosocomial infections in a new hospital in the United Arab Emirates is presented. During an 18-month period in which there were 6,544 discharges, 379 nosocomial infections occurred in 310 patients, representing an attack rate of 4.7%. The commonest site of infection was the urinary tract which accounted for 42.2% of the total. This was followed by surgical wound infections, cutaneous infections, bloodstream infections, lower and upper respiratory infections, infected burns and gastrointestinal infections. The most common organisms were Escherichia coli (22.7% of isolates), Pseudomonas species (17.5%) and Staphylococcus aureus (16.7%). Escherichia coli was the most common cause of urinary tract infections and bacteremia; Staphylococcus aureus was the most common cause of surgical wound and cutaneous infections. There was only one Serratia marcescens infection. We observed a high incidence of Pseudomonas infections, particularly of the urinary tract, and Staphylococcal surgical wound and other cutaneous infections, but otherwise our data are similar to nosocomial infection data from US hospitals.