Secondary Gains of Strategies to Prevent COVID-19 Infection in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Has the Frequency of Healthcare-Associated Infections Decreased?

Objective: To compare the frequency and distribution of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during COVID-19 infection.

Methods: We compared all cases hospitalized in the NICU and diagnosed with HAIs between 1 March - 1 September 2019 (pre-COVID-19 pandemic) and 1 March - 1 September 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Results: We evaluated a total of 957 babies, 427 babies in the pre-COVID-19 period and 530 babies during the COVID-19 pandemic. HAIs were determined in 47 patients (60 attacks) and 39 patients (44 attacks) in the pre-COVID-19 period and during the COVID-19 period, respectively. HAIs incidence density (per1000 hospitalization days) was found 5.43 in pre-COVID-19 period and 4.87 in COVID-19 period. During the COVID-19 period, there was a significant decrease in the HAI incidence density and bloodstream infection (P = 0.009).

Conclusions: COVID-19 infection prevention strategies helped reduce the frequency of HAIs especially in bloodstream infection in NICU.