Impact of COVID-19 on the Microorganisms Causing Healthcare-Associated Infections

Dear Colleagues,

The healthcare system all over the world was affected during the three-year COVID-19 pandemic.

The increased need for hospitalization—not only that of COVID-19 patients, but also those suffering from other diseases—and, consequently, the increased workload for healthcare staff, brought many challenges to the use of traditional infection prevention and control measures. The transmission of both pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms increased in healthcare institutions. The inadequate and irrational use of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic at all levels of healthcare facilities led to changes in the resistance of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) pathogens.

This Special Issue of Microorganisms is dedicated to broadening our understanding of the changes in the frequency and structure of HAI pathogens and the challenges faced in the application of infection prevention and control measures in order to reduce their transmission.

Papers reporting on original research and reviews of the existing literature, as well as short communications, are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ljiljana Marković-Denić
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• healthcare-associated infections
• microorganisms
• COVID-19
• surveillance
• antimicrobial resistance