Incidence and Epidemiology of Nosocomial Infections in Patients Infected with

In a prospective study, we investigated the incidence, characteristics, and risk factors of nosoco-mial infections (NIs) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus disease. There was a total of 528 admissions of 405 eligible patients; 46 NIs (8.7 % per discharge) were identified in 39 patients. The proportional frequencies of NIs were as follows: 16 skin and/or soft-tissue infections (including localized catheter-associated infections), 3.0%; 14 respiratory tract infections, 2.7%; 11 bloodstream infections, 2.1%; and 5 urinary tract infections, 0.9%. The most common etiologic agents were Staphylococcus aureus (27.6%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (13.8%), and Enterobacter cloacae (13.8%). The duration of hospitalization was not significantly prolonged by NI in the cohort. More than 500,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in 67 patients (16.5%) with AIDS-related complex (category A1–2,B1–2); 42 patients (10.4%) were infected with HIV butthe United States since 1981 [1]. Although most HIV-infected patients are hospitalized for some period during the course of did not have clinical symptoms. their illness, little is known about the incidence of nosocomial Current CDC definitions were used for diagnosing NIs [3]. infections (NIs) in this patient population. We surveyed all Opportunistic infections with unknown or undeterminable incu-HIV-infected patients admitted to the San Francisco General bation periods were not considered to be nosocomial. Thirty-Hospital, a 500-bed acute care facility affiliated with the Uni- nine patients (9.6%) developed 46 NIs (8.7 % per discharge)