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Introduction The number of patients and clinical conditions treated in home healthcare (HHC) is increasing. Care in home settings presents many challenges, including healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Currently, in Belgium, data and guidelines on the topic are lacking. Aim To develop a definition of HAI in HHC and investigate associated risk factors and recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC). Methods The study included three components: a scoping literature review, in-depth interviews with individuals involved in HHC and a two-round Delphi survey to reach consensus among key informants on the previous steps’ results. Results The literature review included 47 publications. We conducted 21 in-depth interviews. The Delphi survey’s two rounds had 21 and 23 participants, respectively. No standard definition was broadly accepted or known. Evidence on associated risk factors was impacted by methodological limitations and recommendations were inconsistent. Agreement was reached on defining HAI in HHC as any infection specifically linked with providing care that develops in a patient receiving HHC from a professional healthcare worker and occurs ≥ 48 hours after starting HHC. Risk factors were hand hygiene, untrained patients and caregivers, patients’ hygiene and presence and management of invasive devices. Agreed recommendations were to adapt and standardise existing IPC guidelines to HHC and to perform a national point prevalence study to measure the burden of HAI in HHC. Conclusions This study offers an overview of available evidence and field knowledge of HAI in HHC. It provides a framework for a prevalence study, future monitoring policies and guidelines on IPC in Belgium.

Introduction In 2007, a new federal legislation in Belgium prohibited non-biosafety level 3 laboratories to process culture tubes suspected of containing mycobacteria. Aim To present mycobacterial surveillance/diagnosis data from the Belgian National Reference Centre for mycobacteria (NRC) from 2007 to 2016. Methods This retrospective observational study investigated the numbers of analyses at the NRC and false positive cultures (interpreted as containing mycobacteria at referring clinical laboratories, but with no mycobacterial DNA detected by PCR in the NRC). We reviewed mycobacterial species identified and assessed trends over time of proportions of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) vs Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBc), and false positive cultures vs NTM. Results From 2007 to 2016, analyses requests to the NRC doubled from 12.6 to 25.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. A small but significant increase occurred in NTM vs MTBc proportions, from 57.9% (587/1,014) to 60.3% (867/1,437) (p M. avium predominated (ca 20% of NTM cultures), but M. intracellulare culture numbers rose significantly, from 13.0% (74/587) of NTM cultures in 2007 to 21.0% (178/867) in 2016 (RR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.03–1.07). The number of false positive cultures also increased, reaching 43.3% (1,097/2,534) of all samples in 2016. Conclusion We recommend inclusion of NTM in sentinel programmes. The large increase of false positive cultures is hypothesised to result from processing issues prior to arrival at the NRC, highlighting the importance of sample decontamination/transport and equipment calibration in peripheral laboratories.