Healthcare-Associated Infection Surveillance

Genomics for healthcare-associated infection surveillance

Genomics for healthcare-associated infection surveillance

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections that occur in a healthcare setting and are estimated to affect approximately 7% of patients in high-income countries and approximately 15% of patients in low - and middle-income countries in acute care hospitals. These infections, which are often caused by multidrug-resistant organisms, can lead to significant morbidity and mortality, increased healthcare costs, and regulatory noncompliance. Surveillance of HAIs is a core component of infection prevention and control programs, which serves to help identify outbreaks and transmission routes, guide infection prevention and control measures, and provide valuable data on the prevalence and distribution of specific pathogens and resistance patterns.1

As part of these surveillance efforts, genomics is unraveling key insights into the genetic makeup of pathogens and enabling more precise identification and tracking of outbreaks and transmission routes. Powered by next-generation sequencing (NGS), labs and clinics can perform genomic HAI-related studies at unprecedented speed and scalability using massively parallel workflows.

NGS applications for healthcare-associated infection surveillance

DNA sequencing is a powerful tool for identifying the specific microorganisms that cause HAIs and for characterizing their genetic makeup, including the presence of genes that confer resistance to antimicrobial drugs. This information can be used to track the spread of infections within healthcare facilities and to implement targeted infection control measures to prevent further transmission.

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Antibiotic resistance genes in hospital wastewater

Read how researchers uncover antibiotic resistance genes in hospital wastewater to understand circulation of resistant bacteria into the environment.


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Tracking resistant strains

With the growing threat of HAI, see how researchers are using NGS to track multi-drug resistant pathogens and its comparison to other methods in hospitals.


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Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) surveillance for enhanced outbreak detection

Read how whole-genome sequencing surveillance combined with machine learning for electronic health records (EHRs) can identify undetected outbreaks and transmission routes in this potentially field-changing report.

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Empowering healthcare–associated infection surveillance with bacterial genome sequencing

This application note outlines the comprehensive identification of pathogenic isolates using Illumina sequencing and the SRST2 BaseSpace app.

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Related resources

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Public health surveillance

Learn how public health surveillance can be a vital tool for identifying infectious disease pathogens, variants, AMR and more.

Antimicrobial resistance detection
Antimicrobial resistance detection

Learn more about the importance of antimicrobial resistance detection and NGS-based solutions to characterize resistant microbes.

Genomic surveillance
Genomic surveillance

Explore how genomic surveillance with next-generation sequencing (NGS) can track infectious disease transmission and identify novel strains of coronavirus and other emerging pathogens.

Microbial whole-genome sequencing
Microbial whole-genome sequencing

See Illumina solutions for microbial whole-genome sequencing to analyze hundreds of organisms with the power of multiplexing. Confidently detect low-frequency variants and genome rearrangements.

Wastewater surveillance
Wastewater surveillance

Explore how wastewater surveillance can identify pathogens, including strains related to AMR, and variants in a community.

bacterial genome sequencing
Multi-drug resistant fungus in hospitals

See how Illumina sequencing platforms are being used to detect Candida auris, a global health threat, at the Nevada State Health Lab to prevent trace transmission and prevent outbreaks.

References
  1. World Health Organization. Global report on infection and prevention control. who.int/publications/i/item/9789240051164. Published 2022.