[Measures to prevent outbreaks of hospital infections]

On the basis of the analysis of 69 outbreaks of hospital infections registered in the USSR in 1986-1989, as well as additional observations made by the authors, a number of factors which determined the present state of the problems concerning this kind of morbidity in the USSR were established: an insufficient level (in cases of enteric infections) or a low level (in cases of purulent septic infections) of etiological diagnosis; poor efficiency of the epidemiological investigation of outbreaks; defects in the work on the prophylactic detection of potential sources of infection among medical staff, parturient women or mothers taking care of their infants. Some possible solutions on these aspects were proposed. Cases of outbreaks of hospital infections among newborns were used as an example demonstrating that such outbreaks were caused mainly by breaches of antiepidemic and sanitary rules in respective hospitals; thus, in one-third of the cases of outbreaks such breaches were observed in maternity clinics with insufficient material and technical equipment. The prevention of these breaches is considered to be the main road to the solution of the whole problem of the prevention of epidemic outbreaks in hospitals.