Abstract: PO1238
Can COVID-19 Personal Hygiene and Social Distancing Reduce Bacteremia and Peritonitis Rates in Dialysis Patients
Session Information
- Hemodialysis and Frequent Dialysis - 4
October 22, 2020 | Location: On-Demand
Abstract Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Category: Dialysis
- 701 Dialysis: Hemodialysis and Frequent Dialysis
Author
- Samad, Nasreen, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, London, United Kingdom
Background
During COVID-19 pandemic affecting United Kingdom(UK) from March till May 2020 with social distancing guidelines in place (hand washing 5 times a day, 2 meter separation) and shielding in high risk individuals (including renal replacement therapy patients) and strict personal protective equipment (PPE) use in dialysis units we proposed the hypothesis that it may have positive impact on bacteremia in heamodialysis(HD) and peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis(PD) patients.
Methods
We compared Staphylococus Aureus (SA) bacteremia in HD patients and PD peritonitis rates over three months March, April and May 2020 and compared the results with similar duration during 2019.We also viewed SA colonization rate in a satellite unit during this period.
Results
Quarterly Staph. Aureus bacteremia results showed yearly rate on 31 May 2019, 31 August 2019, 30 November 2019, 28 February 2020 and 31 May 2020 as 0.014, 0.021, 0.039, 0.038 and 0.024 respectively.
However yearly PD peritonitis rates were significantly down from 0.386 to 0.238 from January 2019 to April 2020.
MRSA colonisation data from one satellite unit showed 2 out of 105 patients colonised in January 2019, of whom one decolonized by April 2020 while 16 patients in the same unit had MSSA colonization in January 2019 which was 15 out of 103 patients in February 2020 suggesting no significant difference in SA colonisation rate.
Conclusion
Improvement in peritonitis rates is indicative of personal behavioural change with regards to common sense hygienic principles being very important in PD.
However, in HD patients it had no impact on bacteremia at similar time one year ago indicating that possibly colonisation with MSSA/MRSA are important and strategies to decolonisation of HD patients may help reduce episodes of bacteremia. There was some reduction in bacteremia rate from preceding quarter ending February 2020 to quarter ending May 2020 although not to May 2019 level. It will be difficult to say at this stage if this trend will be sustained in coming months.