The prevention and control of bacterial infections remain a major challenge for hospitals worldwide – one that is growing in both complexity and cost. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated one in ten patients globally acquire an infection during hospitalization, with higher rates seen in low- and middle-income countries and among high-risk patients. In the EU/EEA alone, approximately 4.3 million patients develop healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) each year.
At the same time, surveillance systems are under strain. Few new antibacterial therapies are expected to reach clinical use quickly enough to counter the most critical pathogens, increasing reliance on early detection and containment. This creates an urgent need for innovative, real-time surveillance approaches that can identify outbreaks early, protect vulnerable populations, and strengthen hospital resilience against rising microbial threats.
Despite the presence of national and cross-border surveillance networks, many hospitals still depend on workflows that are slow, fragmented, and poorly suited to modern demands. Traditional outbreak investigations often require samples to be sent to reference laboratories, introducing delays that can compromise effective containment.
Laboratories are frequently forced to choose between genomic sequencing – which is highly discriminatory but slow and resource-intensive – and biochemical typing methods that are faster but less informative. Neither option consistently delivers the rapid, actionable insights needed during a hospital-acquired infection outbreak. As a result, significant delays can occur between pathogen emergence, laboratory identification, and implementation of infection control measures.
To address these gaps, hospitals need technologies capable of delivering results in real time. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is emerging as a practical tool for rapid outbreak detection and analysis. Rather than relying on genetic sequencing, FTIR generates a unique biochemical “fingerprint” for each microorganism, enabling immediate comparison and cluster analysis of bacterial isolates.
In suspected outbreak scenarios involving multiple patients, FTIR allows laboratories to determine on the same day whether isolates are related. This represents a marked improvement over legacy workflows, where results may arrive days later – often after opportunities for early intervention have passed. For common hospital pathogens, FTIR-based clustering has shown performance comparable to next-generation sequencing, while delivering results within hours rather than days.
As the volume and complexity of outbreak investigations continue to increase, rapid and decentralized pathogen typing is becoming essential. Wider deployment of FTIR-based workflows could significantly shorten response times, reduce transmission events, and expand access to advanced surveillance capabilities beyond specialized reference centres.
In the context of hospital outbreaks – where every hour matters – access to fast, reliable typing supports earlier decision-making by clinical and hygiene teams. Moving from centralized, delayed systems toward local, real-time outbreak analysis represents an important step in modernizing hospital surveillance and strengthening infection prevention strategies worldwide.
Newsletters
Receive the latest pathologist news, personalities, education, and career development – weekly to your inbox.
