Professor Niccolò Buetti1
1Infection Control Programme and WHO Collaborating Centre, Geneva University Hospitals
Biography:
Professor Niccolò Buetti is an infectious diseases physician specializing in infection prevention and clinical epidemiology. He trained at the University of Zurich and holds an MSc and PhD in clinical epidemiology from Paris. He currently works at the Infection Control Programme and WHO Collaborating Centre at Geneva University Hospitals. His research focuses on the epidemiology, prevention, surveillance, and management of bloodstream and intravascular catheter-related infections. Since 2021, he has led Switzerland’s national catheter infection surveillance programme. He received the 2020 ESCMID Young Investigator Award and contributed to SHEA/IDSA practice recommendations and WHO guidelines on preventing intravascular catheter-associated infections.
Abstract:
Catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CABSI) remain a major global patient-safety challenge, contributing substantially to morbidity, mortality, prolonged hospitalization, and healthcare costs. Recently published WHO recommendations provide a global evidence-based framework for the prevention of bloodstream infections associated with peripheral and central venous catheters.
This presentation will revisit key WHO recommendations and critically appraise selected aspects of the evidence underpinning them, including areas of uncertainty and ongoing controversy. Moving from guidelines to current practice, new worldwide data will be presented to illustrate how catheter infection-prevention practices vary across healthcare settings and how closely current practice aligns with available recommendations. This will provide the basis for discussing what may represent the next major challenge: translating evidence and international recommendations into effective, sustainable implementation across diverse healthcare systems.
Finally, the presentation will look beyond current guidelines and explore future perspectives on CABSI prevention. Emerging preventive strategies and innovative clinical trial platforms, novel diagnostic approaches, automated surveillance, and the increasing role of artificial intelligence and data-driven methods will be discussed as potential components of the next generation of CABSI prevention and control.