TABLE 4.
Distribution and Rank Order of Pathogens Frequently Reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), by Type of Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI), 2011–2014
| Pathogen | Overall | CLABSI | CAUTI | VAPa | SSI | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. (%) of pathogens | Rankb | No. (%) of pathogens | Rankb | No. (%) of pathogens | Rankb | No. (%) of pathogens | Rankb | No. (%) of pathogens | Rankb | |
| Escherichia coli | 62,904 (15.4) | 1 | 5,193 (5.4) | 7 | 36,806 (23.9) | 1 | 476 (5.4) | 6 | 20,429 (13.7) | 2 |
| Staphylococcus aureus | 48,302 (11.8) | 2 | 12,706 (13.2) | 2 | 2,515 (1.6) | 14 | 2,179 (24.7) | 1 | 30,902 (20.7) | 1 |
| Klebsiella (pneumoniae/oxytoca) | 31,498 (7.7) | 3 | 8,062 (8.4) | 4 | 15,471 (10.1) | 4 | 898 (10.2) | 3 | 7,067 (4.7) | 6 |
| Coagulase-negative staphylococcic | 31,361 (7.7) | 4 | 15,794 (16.4) | 1 | 3,696 (2.4) | 13 | 72 (0.8) | 13 | 11,799 (7.9) | 3 |
| Enterococcus faecalisd | 30,034 (7.4) | 5 | 8,118 (8.4) | 3 | 10,728 (7.0) | 5 | 32 (0.4) | 21 | 11,156 (7.5) | 4 |
| Pseudomonas aeruginosa | 29,636 (7.3) | 6 | 3,881 (4.0) | 10 | 15,848 (10.3) | 3 | 1,449 (16.5) | 2 | 8,458 (5.7) | 5 |
| Candida albicansd | 27,231 (6.7) | 7 | 5,761 (6.0) | 6 | 17,926 (11.7) | 2 | 193 (2.2) | 10 | 3,351 (2.2) | 12 |
| Enterobacter sppc | 17,235 (4.2) | 8 | 4,204 (4.4) | 9 | 5,689 (3.7) | 9 | 727 (8.3) | 4 | 6,615 (4.4) | 8 |
| Enterococcus faeciumd | 14,942 (3.7) | 9 | 6,567 (6.8) | 5 | 4,212 (2.7) | 11 | 23 (0.3) | 24 | 4,140 (2.8) | 11 |
| Other Enterococcus spp.d | 14,694 (3.6) | 10 | 1,974 (2.0) | 14 | 6,291 (4.1) | 7 | 19 (0.2) | 27 | 6,410 (4.3) | 9 |
| Proteus spp.c | 11,249 (2.8) | 11 | 820 (0.8) | 17 | 6,108 (4.0) | 8 | 125 (1.4) | 12 | 4,196 (2.8) | 10 |
| Yeast NOSe | 10,811 (2.6) | 12 | 763 (0.8) | 18 | 9,443 (6.1) | 6 | 54 (0.6) | 16 | 551 (0.4) | 25 |
| Other Candida spp.d | 10,641 (2.6) | 13 | 4,730 (4.9) | 8 | 5,178 (3.4) | 10 | 37 (0.4) | 19 | 696 (0.5) | 19 |
| Candida glabratad | 8,121 (2.0) | 14 | 3,314 (3.4) | 11 | 4,121 (2.7) | 12 | 12 (0.1) | 33 | 674 (0.5) | 20 |
| Bacteroides spp. | 7,560 (1.9) | 15 | 515 (0.5) | 19 | 2 (<0.1) | 130 | 2 (<0.1) | 72 | 7,041 (4.7) | 7 |
| Other pathogen | 51,932 (12.7) | 14,130 (14.6) | 9,771 (6.4) | 2,507 (28.5) | 25,524 (17.1) | |||||
| Total | 408,151 (100) | 96,532 (100) | 153,805 (100) | 8,805 (100) | 149,009 (100) | |||||
NOTE. CAUTI, catheter-associated urinary tract infection; CLABSI, central line-associated bloodstream infection; NOS, not otherwise specified; SSI, surgical site infection; VAP, ventilator-associated pneumonia.
This report includes VAP data from 2011–2012 only.
The 15 most common pathogens are listed in this table and ranked according to how frequently they were reported to NHSN. The rankings were established based on all pathogens reported.
Among all HAIs, the following species were frequently reported but considered part of a larger pathogen group for this table: Staphylococcus epidermidis (12,562 pathogens reported), Enterobacter cloacae (11,269), and Proteus mirabilis (10,559).
For informational purposes, select pathogens were also categorized at the combined genus-level with the following results: All Enterococcus species (E. faecalis, E. faecium, and other species) were ranked Overall (2), CLABSI (1), CAUTI (3), VAP (11), SSI (2) and all Candida species (C. albicans, C. glabrata, and other species) were ranked Overall (4), CLABSI (3), CAUTI (2), VAP (9), SSI (10).
Other non-Candida yeast, or yeast not otherwise specified.