No abstract

The surveillance study of rotavirus gastroenteritis at the University Teaching Hospital Trenčín area, Slovakia, during 2006-2011 confirmed that the genotype profile of circulating rotaviruses was not stable. While G1P[8] dominating genotype dropped from 75 to 7.3 % in the period 2009-2011, genotype G2P[4] that was not detected in 2009 raised to 45.1 % in 2011. Vaccination coverage rose from 4.4 to 22.1 % in the period 2008-2011. Among the community and hospital cases, we observed that the average age of patients with nosocomial infections was significantly less (10.6 months) than in the cases of community rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) cases. Compared to the nosocomial infection cases, the duration of the disease and the duration of hospitalization among the community cases were significantly longer by 0.22 and 3.63 days, respectively, during 2006-2011. Though the vaccination coverage was found to correlate with changes in the type of the circulating rotaviruses, the natural circulation in rotavirus genotypes may not be excluded as important factor contributing to the emergence of G2P[4] strain during the survey period.

We analyzed the occurrence of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) at intensive care unit of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Medicine of Martin Faculty Hospital in 2008. We performed a retrospective-prospective observation according the protocol of European HELICS (Hospital in Europe Link for Infection Control and Surveillance) system. We found 11 HAI (4.45%) which on average prolonged the length of hospitalization by 6 days. The most frequent localisation of HAI was the respiratory tract. By our own observation we found the same number of HAI cases as it had been reported officially but the observed and reported cases do not match. The surveillance system HELICS uses definitions slightly different from those used in Slovakia. The severity of health status of a patient at admission influences the risk of HAI. We suggest a continuing collaboration on HELICS system with further involvement of all departments of Martin Faculty Hospital and creation of a hospital infection control team. We also suggest an improvement in testing for etiologic agents of HAI and an introduction of methods of molecular epidemiology in diagnostics, as well as quantification of costs related to occurrence of HAI and to assess an implication of automated monitoring system in HAI surveillance.