Effects of novel Coronavirus pneumonia pandemic on the spread of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter in ICU

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of novel coronavirus pneumonia pandemic on multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii transmission in intensive care units(ICU) and to provide reference for the guidance of nosocomial infection prevention and control. METHODS: Data of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii in ICU1, ICU2 and neurosurgery ICU from Jan. 2019 to Aug. 2020 were collected. Contact times between healthcare workers and environmental surfaces, clearance rate of fluorescent marker in the culture of environment specimens before and after the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, number of free colonies and number of MDR-AB were detected, and the correlation between MDR-AB detection rate of the environment and MDR-AB the infection rate were analyzed by using Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: The high-frequency contact surfaces in ICU were bed bars(43.59 times), quilts(39.58 times), treatment vehicles(30.83 times), vein tubes(27.46 times), nursing station table tops(27.20 times) and hand sterilized buttons(26.40 times). The clearance rate of fluorescent marker after novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak was 81.35%, which was significantly higher than that before the new coronavirus-infected pneumonia epidemic outbreak(P<0.001), with the rate of 56.57%. The detection rate and infection rate of MDR-AB in the environment after new coronavirus-infected pneumonia epidemic were 5.40% and 1.80%, respectively, which were significantly lower than that before the epidemic(P<0.001). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the detection rate of MDR-AB in the ICU environment was positively correlated with the MDR-AB infection rate of patients(r=0.850, P=0.002). CONCLUSION: Methods of novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic prevention promoted the implementation of environmental sanitation, disinfection and isolation measures, cut off the transmission route of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii, and played a positive role in the prevention and control of infection.