​On 21 May, Public Health England (PHE) reported that a retrospective investigation identified 13 patients with endocarditis, surgical site infection or disseminated infection with Mycobacterium chimaera or other Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) species within four years of surgery involving cardiopulmorary bypass.

​Today, ECDC’s Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) publishes a new version of the software application HelicsWin.Net. The new version features the updated module for the second ECDC point prevalence survey (PPS) of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use in European acute care hospitals, taking place in 2016-2017.

​The findings in the latest report on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria from ECDC and EFSA underline the serious threat AMR poses to public and animal health. Infections caused by bacteria that are resistant to antimicrobials lead to about 25 000 deaths in the EU every year.

Today, ECDC’s Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) publishes two updated protocols for the surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs): one for surgical site infections (SSIs) and prevention indicators, and another one for HAIs and prevention indicators in intensive care units (ICUs), both to be used by European hospitals. An update of the protocol for the surveillance of Clostridium difficile infections (CDIs) was published on 21 April.

ECDC point prevalence surveys (PPSs) estimate that each year 3.5 million healthcare-associated infections occur in acute care hospitals, and 4.2 million in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) across Europe.

​An EU-wide survey estimated that 4.2 million healthcare-associated infections occur every year in European long-term care facilities, compared to an estimated 3.5 million occurring in European acute care hospitals, and that on any given day, over 116 400 residents have at least one active healthcare-associated infection. Pete Kinross, an expert in surveillance of healthcare-associated infections at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), speaks about these findings during a session on antimicrobial resistance in these healthcare settings, at ECCMID 2017.

The rise in Europe of Candida auris infections, a difficult-to-control fungus, is of concern. The fungus spreads easily in healthcare settings, can cause invasive infections, and is also associated with resistance to multiple classes of anti-fungal medication.

The occurrence of sporadic cases of hospital-acquired malaria in the EU is a reminder that such transmission is possible, although uncommon.

Thirteen patients with OXA-48-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae ST392 have been reported by Sweden and Norway between January and April 2018 - all returning travellers with prior hospital admission in Gran Canaria. Whole genome sequencing showed tight clustering between the bacterial isolates from the cases.