[Nosocomial infections and infection control committee]

The problems of nosocomial infections include cross infections from the environments to patients in the wards and infections from virus-contaminated bloods into medical staffs by mainly needle stick injury. The infection control committees organized in Hokkaido University Hospital in 1981 for HBV infection, in 1992 for MRSA and HIV infections, provide adequate and urgent advice to all the medical staffs to prevent the spread of cross infections and to prevent the contaminations of blood-borne viruses. In this report, the present status of nosocomial infections especially the opportunistic infections in compromised hosts and the role of infection control committees were discussed.