Survey of infection control infrastructure in selected southern and eastern Mediterranean hospitals.

A structured questionnaire concerning hospital infection control (IC) organisation and initiatives was sent to 45 hospitals in Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. Hospitals bordering the eastern Mediterranean appeared to have more established IC infrastructures than southern Mediterranean hospitals. However, there were no significant differences among hospitals in the two regions in surveillance activities, the presence of an antibiotic policy or feedback of resistance data to prescribers, all of which were at a low level. Only a minority of hospitals had published antimicrobial treatment guidelines or gave feedback on antimicrobial resistance data to prescribers.