Objective
Recent research has suggested that episodes of gram-negative (GN) bloodstream infection
(BSI) are more common in the population during summer months. Our objective was to
determine if the same phenomenon could be observed in patients with health care-associated
(HCA) BSI, and if so, whether a summer peak was less apparent in patients accommodated
in a climate-controlled hospital environment.
Methods
Data from episodes of HCA BSI spanning an 11-year period were analyzed. To test for
seasonal variation in HCA BSI among hospitalized and nonhospitalized patients, and
between GN and gram-positive organisms, the χ2 goodness-of-fit test was used.
Results
There were 440 episodes of HCA GN BSI of which 259 (59%) occurred in inpatients and
181 (41%) occurred in noninpatients. A significant increase in the frequency of HCA
GN BSI was observed in nonhospitalized patients during the summer months (P = .03) but not in climate-controlled hospitalized patients. The most common source
of infection in these patents was an intravascular device (38%).
Conclusions
We found an increased incidence of GN HCA BSI during summer that was not apparent
in our inpatient cohort. The cause is unknown. It might be prudent to advise patients
at risk of BSI (eg, those receiving intravascular infusions) to minimize exposure
to high environmental temperature and to educate on possible behavioral factors that
may increase risk.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 23, 2013
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
