The INICC network was established to address the urgent need of developing countries to significantly prevent, control and reduce DA-HAIs and their adverse consequences. We aim to encourage wider adherence to infection control programs in all INICC member hospitals, which will result in accompanying and significant DA-HAI reductions, particularly in the ICU setting. Similar to these hospitals in Egypt, any hospital worldwide is invited to join the INICC program, through

which infection control teams are furnished with training, tools and basic methods to conduct outcome and process surveillance. Moreover, through the publication of these confidentially collected data, the scientific evidence-based literature is advanced, which also contributes to effectively and systematically tackling this problem. The authors Afatinib chemical structure declare that they did not receive

any personal funding, and the funding for the activities carried out at INICC headquarters was provided by the corresponding author Victor D. Rosenthal and the Foundation to Fight against Nosocomial Infections. None declared. Every hospital’s Institutional Review Board agreed to the study protocol, and patient confidentiality was protected by codifying the recorded information, making it identifiable only to the ICT. Idea, conception and design: Victor D. Rosenthal; software development: Victor D. Rosenthal; assembly of learn more data: Victor D.

Rosenthal; analysis and interpretation of the data: Victor D. Rosenthal; epidemiological analysis: Victor D. Rosenthal; statistical analysis: Victor D. Rosenthal; administrative, technical, and logistic support: Victor D. Rosenthal; drafting of the article: Branched chain aminotransferase Victor D. Rosenthal; critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: all byline authors; final approval of the article: all byline authors; provision of study patients: all byline authors; collection of data: all byline authors; funding: Victor D. Rosenthal and the Foundation to Fight against Nosocomial Infections, which funds all of the activities at INICC headquarters. The authors thank the many health care professionals at each member hospital who assisted with the conduct of surveillance in their hospital, including the surveillance nurses, clinical microbiology laboratory personnel, and the physicians and nurses providing care for the patients during the study; without their cooperation and generous assistance, this INICC project would not be possible. The authors also thank Mariano Vilar, Debora Lopez Burgardt, Santiago Suárez, Denise Brito, Yuan Ding, Luciana Soken, Eugenia Manfredi, Darío Pizzuto, Julieta Sayar and Isaac Kelmeszes, who work at INICC headquarters in Buenos Aires, for their hard work and commitment to achieve INICC goals; the INICC country coordinators (Altaf Ahmed, Carlos A.