Advances in the Surveillance and Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections

Dear Colleagues,

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections that patients experience while or after receiving medical care. HAIs are recognized as a global health concern contributing to morbidity and mortality, and are associated with readmission to the hospital, extended length of stay and increased costs. Standardized surveillance and public reporting of healthcare-associated infections are an integral part of infection control programs in most countries. These programs ensure also that feedback is provided to the clinical teams comparing risk-adjusted HAI outcomes to similar institutions across the nation to develop action plans for process improvement, and to verify the effectiveness of the prevention measures introduced.

Over the past 20 years, safety and quality improvement programs have used HAI surveillance to achieve better outcomes. Studies have demonstrated that a significant proportion of healthcare-associated infections and conditions can be prevented using simple and continuous performance improvement strategies, such as Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) cycles. As surveillance methodologies, risk assessments and prevention initiatives become more sophisticated and complex, additional efforts are needed to increase our knowledge in this field.

This Special Issue aims to provide the latest questions and controversies surrounding the surveillance, prevention, and control of HAIs. We invite experts worldwide to submit research articles or review articles related to this important topic. Suggested topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Hospital-onset bacteremia or fungemia vs. central line-associated bloodstream infection surveillance;
• Changing hospital-onset C. difficile surveillance from LABID to alternative options;
• Are transmission-based precautions for high-frequency MDROs (e.g. MRSA) still indicated?;
• Updating SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viral pathogen transmission precautions;
• Hospital value-based purchasing in sepsis care;
• Diagnostic stewardship of UTIs.
• Tuberculosis screening and mask fit-testing in healthcare workers.
• Innovations in antimicrobial stewardship.
• Adopting sustainable stewardship measures to reduce medical waste in healthcare.
• Prevention of medical device contamination from environmental microorganisms.

Prof. Dr. Francesca J. Torriani
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pathogens is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)
• nosocomial infections
• HAI-associated pathogens
• infection prevention and control
• antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship