HAI point prevalence report in two Cambodian hospitals, 2023: An application of World Health Organization simplified case definition.

Background: Hospital-associated infections (HAIs) are a global threat impacting patient safety and decreasing the quality of care. Standardized HAI case definitions are key in capturing infection cases to inform strategies to prevent and control HAIs. However, previous studies conducted to identify HAI cases were limited to using the case definitions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Europe and the USA, which requires a high capacity of diagnostic services.

Methods: This study used a point prevalence survey from the World Health Organization (WHO) pilot project to test the simplified HAI case definitions to provide HAI prevalence in a Cambodian national and a provincial hospital. R was used perform descriptive analysis and to estimate the prevalence of HAIs.

Results: Based on the WHO case definitions of HAIs, 114 of the 591 eligible participants in the study acquired at least 1 type of HAI, representing an overall prevalence of 19.3%.

Conclusions: This study provided the groundwork for identifying HAI cases using WHO HAI case definitions. Compared to previous studies, this study found a high prevalence of HAIs. Therefore, future studies should consider exploring how implementing the WHO case definition impacts the identification and management of HAIs.