Over half of ICU patients infected during hospital stay, mortality exceeds 90%: icddr,b
Drug Resistant Bacteria Risks Alarmingly High in Bangladesh ICUs
- Studies in Dhaka specialized hospitals reveal alarming presence of Gram-negative bacteria
- Strict infection control measures in NICU reduce mortality rate by 86%
- Experts urge proper hand hygiene, environmental cleanliness, and rational antibiotic use
The risk of difficult-to-treat drug-resistant bacterial infections in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) across hospitals in Bangladesh has risen to alarming levels. According to two recent studies conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), more than half of the patients who were free from such bacteria at the time of hospital admission contracted infections while undergoing treatment in ICUs. Alarmingly, the mortality rate exceeded 90 percent among patients whose blood cultures confirmed positive for these drug-resistant bacterial infections.
On July 26, Sunday, icddr,b highlighted these findings following the publication of the research in two international peer-reviewed journals: 'Microbiology Spectrum' and 'Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control'. The research findings were formally made public on July 25.
The two studies analyzed data from 373 critically ill adult patients admitted to the ICU of a specialized public hospital in Dhaka between July 2023 and February 2024, and 363 neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the same hospital from December 2023 to September 2024. Funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the study focused primarily on four hard-to-treat Gram-negative bacteria: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Results showed that 48.5 percent of ICU patients harbored these treatment-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in their gut. Most alarmingly, out of 198 patients who were clean of these bacteria at admission, 105 (53 percent) acquired the infection inside the ICU. Researchers identified limited ICU infrastructure, patient overcrowding, and hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infection risks as primary causes behind this extremely high mortality rate.
However, the second study provided strong evidence that robust prevention can turn the tide. Implementing World Health Organization (WHO) guided Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures over seven months in the NICU brought down bloodstream infections from 28 to just 4 per 100 admitted patients—an 86 percent reduction. Simultaneously, neonatal deaths dropped sharply from 26 to 4 per 100 admitted newborns.
Dr. Gazi Md. Salahuddin Mamun, Assistant Scientist at icddr,b and lead author of the studies, along with Executive Director Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed, noted that whole-genome sequencing confirmed how silent carriage turns fatal inside clinical wards. They emphasized that ensuring hand hygiene, maintaining hospital cleanliness, assuring environmental disinfection, and practicing rational antibiotic use are urgent national imperatives to curb antimicrobial resistance.
//DBTech/BTI/EDP//
