key: cord-0766720-vzl804zd
authors: Curtis, Luke
title: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era hospital infection controls reduce other serious infections and must be continued after the COVID-19 tragedy is resolved
date: 2021-01-25
journal: Infection control and hospital epidemiology
DOI: 10.1017/ice.2021.11
sha: 8ef2f2e9816fe43d53a3317219f2a867bbd118ca
doc_id: 766720
cord_uid: vzl804zd

nan

To the Editor-I read with great interest your 3 recent papers by Wong et al 1 Ponce-Alonso et al 2 , and Wee et al, 3 who report that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-era infection control bundles are associated in significant decreases in many nosocomial viral and bacterial infection rates such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, and Clostridium difficile. The Ponce-Alonso Spanish study reported a decrease of 69% in hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infection rates following implementation of a hospital infection control bundle: incidence density was 8.54 per 10,000 patients day before and 2.68 per 100,000 days after the COVID-19 infection control bundle (P = .000257 2 ).

Other studies have also reported that COVID-19-era infection controls such as hand washing, masking and gowning, better hospital cleaning, and isolation of COVID-19 patients can significantly reduce rates of many bacterial and viral infections. A study in a 1,785-bed Singapore hospital reported that the use of COVID-19-related infection control bundles was associated with significantly reduced rates of many hospital-acquired infections, including nosocomial respiratory infections (incidence rate, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.05-0.13), nosocomial MRSA (IR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.46-0.64), and central-line bloodstream infections (IR, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.07-0.57). 4 A California study involving 37,033 hospital patient days reported that following implementation of a COVID-19 infection control bundle, rates of many multidrug-resistant pathogens decreased significantly including a 41% decrease in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a 21% decrease in (extended-spectrum β-lactamase bacteria (ESBL), and an 80% decrease in vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). 5 Better hospital infection control bundles can also reduce rates of common nosocomial fungal infections, 6 although I am not aware of any current studies that have reported on lower rates of Aspergillus or Candida in the COVID-19 era. Such studies of COVID-19-era nosocomial Aspergillus and Candida rates might yield useful data on how to prevent common life-threatening fungal infections.

Clearly, enhanced infection control procedures need to be followed long after the COVID-19 tragedy has resolved. 7 I hope that Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology will continue to publish more good papers on COVID-19-era infection control.

Absence of nosocomial influenza and respiratory syncytial virus infection in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era: Implication of universal masking in hospitals

Impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on nosocomial Clostridioides difficile infection

Impact of infection prevention precautions on adenoviral infections during the COVID-19 pandemic: experience of a tertiary hospital in Singapore

Unintended consequences of infection prevention and control measures during COVID-19 pandemic

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare acquired infections with multidrug-resistant organisms

Nosocomial fungal infections: epidemiology, infection control, and prevention

Reduction in nosocomial infections during the COVID-19 era: a lesson to be learned

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era hospital infection controls reduce other serious infections and must be continued after the COVID-19 tragedy is resolved

Acknowledgments.Financial support. No financial support was provided relevant to this article.Conflicts of interest. The author reports no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.