The HIWE project is about healthcare associated infections and antimicrobial resistance.
The background to the project is that antimicrobial resistance is a threat for maintaining today’s level of healthcare. This poses a serious risk for the population in the Baltic Sea region as well as in other places. In the EU, over four million patients acquire healthcare associated infections every year. 37 000 of these infections result in deaths and at least 50 per cent of them are due to antimicrobial resistance. To contain antimicrobial resistance, it is necessary to reduce transmission of disease and healthcare associated infections. Hence, it is essential to focus on prevention.
The project stresses that collaborations between countries are needed. With this in mind, it wants to link a Ukrainian medical educational and research institution, to an ongoing EU initiative to combat antimicrobial resistance and healthcare associated infections. One of the purposes of the project is to increase the awareness of infection prevention in healthcare with focus on catheter associated urinary tract infections. The activities include lectures on infection prevention as well as on catheter associated urinary tract infections. A dialogue between coordinators from the EU initiative and the Ukrainian partner is also planned.