Spanish activities in prevention and control of hospital infection

Spanish activities in prevention and control of hospital infection began in an organized manner in 1970. Throughout the decade we worked on the following aspects: promotion of an Infection Control Committee, promotion of a unit for Epidemiological Surveillance for Hospital Infection and design of sanitary control of the hospital environment. Nowadays more than 50% of Social Security Hospitals have a basic structure suitable for following a good surveillance system and only 10% do not perform any control activities. The National Prevalence Survey (1986) provides the following information: 11.2% of hospital acquired infection, 18.1% of community acquired infection. The most frequent location was in the urinary tract (29%). E. coli was the predominant bacteria and 33% of infections were in patients with more than 65 years of age. Today the magnitude of hospital infection is known and we have developed control and preventive programs but the cost efficacy proportion has not been assessed yet.