Research and analysis

HPR volume 11 issue 34: news (29 September)

Updated 15 December 2017

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Mandatory surveillance of Gram-negative HCAIs extended

The scope of mandatory reporting to PHE of healthcare-associated infections recorded by NHS Acute Trusts and Independent Healthcare Providers in England has been extended to include Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bloodstream infections (bacteraemia), NHS Improvement announced in a letter to Trusts on 18 September [1].

The majority of Trusts are already making these submissions, on a voluntary basis, but all Trusts are now required to submit these data, to PHE HCAI department’s Data Capture System, with retrospective effect from 1 April 2017, and subsequently on a monthly basis.

E. coli bacteraemias – that account for 65% of all Gram-negative infections in England – have been covered by mandatory reporting since June 2011.

Reports and commentary on data generated by mandatory reporting of Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemias will be included in HPR and on the PHE webpages of GOV.UK from early 2018.

Reference

  1. NHS Improvement (18 September 2017). Enhanced surveillance of healthcare-associated Gram-negative bloodstream infections (GNBSI) – additional mandating of Klebsiella species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Letter to NHS acute Trust chief executives and directors of IPC).

Measles elimination progress in the WHO European Region reported

The WHO has confirmed that the UK is among 42 of the 53 countries within the WHO European Region that have achieved “measles elimination”. That is, these countries have achieved absence of endemic measles transmission for a period of at least 12 months, while operating a well-performing surveillance system and achieving at least 95% national vaccine coverage (of the first two doses of MMR vaccine in five-year-olds), as at the end of 2016 [1].

While welcoming the recognition of the UK’s achievement, PHE has pointed that, although no longer endemic to the UK, measles cases continue to occur as a result of importations from abroad and that unvaccinated individuals continue to be vulnerable.

The several thousand cases of measles, and a handful of deaths, reported in the UK over the last three years are all likely to have originated from overseas; and areas where vaccination rates are low will remain vulnerable to imported disease, PHE has reiterated. For example, a rise in cases in 2012/13, particularly amongst those attending music festivals, was concentrated in a cohort of young people who were babies during the time that there was an MMR vaccine “scare” and coverage dropped. (There were 2,016 cases in 2012, and 1,287 in the first six months of 2013, of whom 257 were admitted to hospital, including 39 with serious complications such as pneumonia, meningitis and gastroenteritis.)

Although vaccine coverage in the UK is among the highest in the world, the number of children who are protected from measles at two years has fallen slightly in recent years. PHE therefore continues to invest in programmes which encourage uptake of the vaccine, including focusing on areas where uptake is low and providing appropriate training for local healthcare professionals.

Reference

  1. WHO press release (26 September 2017). “Measles no longer endemic in 79% of the WHO European Region”.

Infection reports in this issue of HPR

The following reports are published in this issue of HPR. The links below are to the relevant webpage collections or publications.

Vaccine-preventable infection reports

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