Prevalence of nosocomial infections in selected hospitals

A point prevalence survey of NI in 10 hospitals has been carried out with the aim to obtain more valid results about their occurrence and to raise the interest of clinicians in this problem. Altogether data on 5,553 hospitalized patients have been evaluated. An epidemiologist along with a clinician jointly found a total 365 of NI in 344 patients a point prevalence 6.6%. The prevalence ranged between 3.6 and 10.5% for different hospitals. The highest NI prevalence was found in surgical wards (urology 19.6%, surgery 12.2%). Undesirably high prevalence of NI was observed in paediatrics (mainly diarrhoeal diseases) and neonatal (conjunctivitis) wards. Infections of the upper respiratory tract were most frequently followed by surgical wound infections and infections of the urinary tract. The occurrence of NI of surgical wounds, urinary tract infections and infections of skin was increasing, while the occurrence of infections of gastrointestinal tract and of the eye was decreasing with age. Gram-negative bacteria were more frequently isolated than Gram-positive bacteria (2:1).