Hindawi Publishing Corporation ISRN Infectious Diseases Volume 2013, Article ID 849493, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2013/849493 Research Article Surveillance System and Prevalence of Healthcare-Associated Infections in a Maternity Hospital Pagona Flevari, 1 Irene Zorou, 2 Athanassios Tsakris, 1 and George Saroglou 2 1 Department of Microbiology, Medical School, University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece 2 Internal Medicine Clinic, “Elena Venizelou” Maternity Hospital, Nursing School, University of Athens, 11521 Athens, Greece Correspondence should be addressed to Athanassios Tsakris; atsakris@med.uoa.gr Received 17 June 2013; Accepted 5 August 2013 Academic Editors: J. Bustamante and R. Favory Copyright © 2013 Pagona Flevari et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Obstetrician-gynaecologist (Ob-Gyn) medical and nursing personnel usually have minimal in action training on infection control (IC). Limited information exists also about the epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in maternity hospitals. he aim of this study was to determine in a 30-day survey prevalence of HAIs among hospitalised patients and neonates in a maternity hospital in Athens, Greece, and to ofer to the IC oice a practical IC manual. Patients hospitalized for more than 24 h in the clinics and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were enrolled. An IC guide was created and distributed to the medical and nursing staf through educational seminars. hrough the survey, among Ob-Gyn patients 16 HAIs were recognized during hospitalization and 14 HAIs ater patients’ discharge; the overall prevalence of infected patients was 2.9% and the prevalence of HAIs was 3.2%. Among NICU patients, the prevalence of HAIs was 3.9%. he IC manual was found easily implemented in daily use improving staf ’s compliance to IC practices. he results of the survey can be used as a baseline for future comparisons between maternity hospitals (benchmarking). he implementation of steady IC guideline protocols for a maternity hospital may update staf education and promote staf compliance on IC practices. 1. Introduction he impact of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is sig- niicant, since not only do they adversely afect patient out- come by increasing morbidity and mortality, but also they prolong hospital stay, enhance resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics, and add economic burden [1–3]. An overview of published reports has suggested that at least 20% of all nosocomial infections can be avoidable, depending on the setting, study design, baseline infection rates, and type of infection [4], while another literature review has pointed out that surveillance of HAIs as part of the IC program can reduce infection rates by up to 30% or more [5]. However, the epidemiology of HAIs in maternity hospitals, which are characterized by a special patient population, has not yet been well deined. In many maternity hospitals there are gaps regarding the implementation of IC practices and the staf orientation and training. Obstetrician-Gynaecologist (Ob-Gyn) patients have a short length of hospital stay and a signiicant number of HAIs are detected ater hospital discharge. Typically, in a survey for the epidemiology of postpartum infections the overall infection rate was 6% with rates of 7.4% following caesarean section and 5.5% following vaginal delivery; how- ever, most of them were registered ater hospital discharge [6]. Moreover, critically ill neonates in intensive care units have immature immune system, underlying health problems, and undergo invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, characteristics that give them a high-risk proile for develop- ing HAIs. In national point prevalence surveys almost one- ith of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients have been reported to sufer from nosocomial infections, infants with low birth weight were more likely to have an infection, and therapeutic intervention was signiicantly associated to NICU-acquired infections [7, 8]. he impact of HAIs not only is of increasing concern, but also underlines clearly the signiicance of a well-organized IC program. Maternity hospitals should mandate the presence of an IC committee to oversee and coordinate IC practices through dissemination of information, surveillance activities,