[The prevalence of nosocomial infections in Czechoslovakia]

The submitted paper presents, based on results of two prevalence, studies in the CSR and SSR, summarized data on the prevalence of nosocomial infections (NI) in the CSSR and analyses the assembled data. The prevalence studies comprised some 17,813 patients, 12,260 from the CSR and 5,553 from the SSR. In the CSSR 1,116 NI were recorded, incl. 751 in the CSR and 365 in the SSR. The prevalence of NI in the CSSR is 6.3%, in men it is slightly higher (6.8%) than in women (5.8%). The highest prevalence of NI in the CSSR was found in infants under one year (9.9%) and in subjects above 65 years (8.3%). Analysis by type of departments revealed that the prevalence of NI is highest in urological departments (19%), in departments of intensive care (13%) and surgical departments (11%). In the CSSR 24% of all NI are urinary infections, 17% early infections and 15% infections of the upper airways. Microbiological findings revealed that staphylococci participated in the development of NI in the CSSR roughly by 23% and Gram-negative bacteria by 64%. The author discusses the results of the overall prevalence of NI in the CSSR and compares the results of prevalence studies from the CSR and SSR.