{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T19:20:45Z","timestamp":1788808845305,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,3]],"date-time":"2025-11-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1762128000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: Changes in the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and during periods with fewer or more COVID-19 cases have been inconclusively studied. Compared with 2015, in 2019, the abundances of the microorganisms Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecium increased in intensive care units (ICUs) in Taiwan. The trend in the incidence of HAIs in ICUs in Taiwan during the emergence of new infectious diseases is worth studying. Materials and Methods: We surveyed the incidence densities of different types of HAIs, device-associated HAIs, pathogens, and antimicrobial resistance in a dataset from the Taiwan Healthcare-associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System from 2015 to 2022. The change in incidence density trends was evaluated via Poisson regression, and the change in proportion trends was checked via the Mantel\u2013Haenszel chi-square test. Results: The incidence of HAIs decreased from 5.7 to 5.17 episodes per 1000 person-days from the pre-COVID-19 period to the post-COVID-19 period. The incidences of healthcare-acquired pneumonia (HAP), device-associated HAIs decreased. However, the incidences of bloodstream infections (BSIs) increased. The percentages of patients with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii infections significantly decreased. The percentage of patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection decreased, but that of patients with carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP), carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB), carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium infections increased. The antimicrobial consumption related to CRKP increased and MRSA decreased. Conclusions: Overall, HAIs, HAP, and VAP decreased in incidence after the COVID-19 pandemic. These results revealed decreases in MRSA infection incidence under infection control protocols with more antimicrobial use. However, the proportion of CRKP among HAIs increased with broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent use. Based on the recent incidence of HAIs in ICUs, the quality of infection control in medical units can be enhanced to decrease HAI incidence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina61111971","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,3]],"date-time":"2025-11-03T13:55:22Z","timestamp":1762178122000},"page":"1971","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["The Change in Healthcare-Associated Infections in Intensive Care Units Associated with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Taiwan"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"61","author":[{"given":"Chien-Ying","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Critical Care Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112201, Taiwan"},{"name":"Division of Traumatology, Emergency Department, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112201, Taiwan"},{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112304, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Taipei, Taipei 111036, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yu-Hsuan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei 11220, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chih-Chun","family":"Hsiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Nursing, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, Taoyuan 32549, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1081-760X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chun-Gu","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, Taoyuan 32549, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical University, Taipei 11490, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0380-7286","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chun-An","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical University, Taipei 11490, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1765","DOI":"10.2147\/RMHP.S269315","article-title":"Strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections: A narrative overview","volume":"13","author":"Haque","year":"2020","journal-title":"Risk Manag. 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