Sistemi nazionali di sorveglianza delle infezioni correlate all'assistenza

In Italy a national system for the surveillance of healthcare acquired infections has not been implemented, since recently. However, some Italian regions have started continuous surveillance systems in high risk units, such as surgical departments and intensive care units, or have conducted regional prevalence surveys. In 2006, the National Center for the Diseases Prevention and Control (Centro Nazionale per la Prevenzione e Controllo delle Malattie (CCM)) has supported and granted an inter-regional project, aimed at the prevention and control of healthcare acquired infections (“Prevenzione e controllo delle infezioni associate all’assistenza sanitaria e socio-sanitaria. Progetto- INF-OSS”), through the adoption of common surveillance and control tools among the Italian regions. An objective of the project was to harmonize the surveillance systems adopted across the Italian regions and to build a national epidemiological database on healthcare acquired infections. In the first two years of activity, several standardized protocols have been developed and agreed among all the participating regions (surgical site infections surveillance and intensive care units infections surveillance – both protocols are compatible with the European surveillance protocols developed by HELICS; prevalence surveys; alert organisms surveillance). Moreover, a national surveillance system on surgical site infections have been set up: until May 2008, 13 regions/autonomous provinces (128 Health Authorities overall ) have agreed to participate.