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Volume 72, Issue 5

Implication of COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of infection in a Greek tertiary hospital Open Access

Abstract

infection (CDI) represents an important global threat. In the COVID-19 era, the multifactorial nature of CDI has emerged.

The aim was to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of CDI in a Greek hospital.

A retrospective study was performed throughout a 51 month period (January 2018 to March 2022), divided into two periods: pre-pandemic (January 2018 to February 2020) and COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 to March 2022). The effects of the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period on the incidence of CDI [expressed as infections per 10 000 bed days (IBD)] were studied using interrupted time-series analysis.

Throughout the study, there was an increase in the monthly CDI incidence from 0.00 to 11.77 IBD (<0.001). Interrupted time-series disclosed an increase in CDI incidence during the pre-pandemic period from 0.00 to 3.36 IBD (<0.001). During the COVID-19 pandemic period the linear trend for monthly CDI rose from 2.65 to 13.93 IBD (<0.001). The increase rate was higher during the COVID-19 pandemic period (r = +0.47) compared to the pre-pandemic period (r = +0.16).

A significant increase of CDI incidence was observed, with the rate of the rise being more intense during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): Clostridiοides difficile infection , coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic , SARS-CoV-2 and time-series analysis
© 2023 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The Microbiology Society waived the open access fees for this article.
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2023-05-17
2024-05-05
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Implication of COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection in a Greek tertiary hospital
J. Med. Microbiol. 72, 001689 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001689
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