Report on the Burden of Endemic Health Care-Associated Infection Worldwide

Data included in this report are the results of systematic reviews of the literature on endemic HCAI from 1995 to 2010 in high- and low/middle-income countries. According to published national or multicentre studies, pooled HCAI prevalence in mixed patient populations was 7.6% in high-income countries. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) estimated that 4 131 000 patients are affected by approximately 4 544 100 episodes of HCAI every year in Europe. The estimated HCAI incidence rate in the USA was 4.5% in 2002, corresponding to 9.3 infections per 1000 patient-days and 1.7 million affected patients. The systematic review of the literature revealed clearly an extremely fragmented picture of the endemic burden of HCAI in the developing world