19 RRJNHS| Volume 2 | Issue 1 | January, 2016 Research & Reviews: Journal of Nursing & Health Sciences Health Care Associated Infections (HCAI) – A Prevalence Study Rabab Ganju 1 , Vipan Gupta 2 , Prithpal S Matreja 3 *, Ashwani K Gupta 3 1 Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Village Ram Nagar, District Patiala-140601, Punjab, India 2 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Science and Research, Solan 173229, Himachal Pradesh, India 3 Department of Pharmacology, Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Village Ram Nagar, District Patiala-140601, Punjab, India Research Article Received date: 06/10/2015 Accepted date: 01/02/2016 Published date: 08/02/2016 *For Correspondence Prithpal S Matreja, Department of Pharmacology, Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Village Ram Nagar, District Patiala-140601, Punjab, India, Tel: 91-9855001847 E-mail: drpsmatreja@yahoo.co.in Keywords: Patients, Infection, Fever, Health care, Cough. ABSTRACT Background: Health care-associated infection (HCAI) affects patients in setting where they receive health care and can also appear after discharge. Although HCAI is the most frequent adverse event in health care, its true global burden remains unknown because of the diffculty in gathering reliable data. The burden of HCAI is one of the key areas of work of Clean and Safer Care, hence this study was designed. Methodology: The study involved patients with symptoms of infective pathology of different body systems with a recent history of hospitalization; patients who developed symptoms of infected pathology of various body symptoms, 2-3 days after admission, a health worker with such symptoms and being the index case in the family and neighborhood, and a person who has undergone clean or clean contaminated surgery. The data collected was analyzed and interpreted for signifcance. Results: A total of 100 patients were enrolled in the study, 43 were males and 57 were females. The females were off slightly higher age group, the number of patients reporting with fever was more in case of females although not signifcant, while discharge was mostly reported by males. 2% patients demonstrated Escherichia coli in their report, whereas the other 3% showed mixed growth. Antimicrobial cover was used in all patients both during the pre-operative and post-operative period. 94% of patients were prescribed Ceftriaxone and 6% were prescribed ciprofoxacin with either amikacin / metronidazole. Conclusion: Our study has shown that the nosocomial infection in our set up is 3%, with most of the patients reporting with either E coli and mixed infection. INTRODUCTION HCAI has a prevalence of 5.1% to 11.6% in developed countries with the same proportion of patients acquiring HCAI at least once during hospitalization between 1995 to 2008 [1-4] . Approximately 1.7 million patients are affected with HCAI in the United States, accounting to 9.3 infections per1000 patients days; with an incidence rate of 4.5% in 2002 [2-4] . A multicenter study conducted in Europe estimated that 51% patients in intensive care units are affected [1-4] . A survey conducted by the WHO First Global Patients Safety Challenge reported 15.6% of functioning national surveillance system in developing countries, though it is in place at the national/sub-national level in developing countries [1] . Hence, the contribution to HCAI data is very scanty in majority of low-income and middle-income countries [1] . HCAI in developing countries is higher than that reported from developed countries