NOSOCOMIAL AND COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED INFECTIONS IN GERMANY - SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST NATIONAL PREVALENCE STUDY (NIDEP)

The first German national study on the prevalence of nosocomial and co mmunity-acquired infections was performed in 1994 in medical, surgical , gynaecological/obstetrical and intensive care departments, 14,966 pa tients in 72 German hospitals representatively selected according to s ize were investigated by outside physicians, These were trained in the use of CDC definitions for nosocomial infections, and their diagnoses validated. Community-acquired infections were recorded according to t he assessment of the hospital physicians, For the diagnosis of nosocom ial infections, only the opinion of the outside investigators was deci sive. A prevalence of 3.5% was found for nosocomial infections and 10. 0% for community-acquired infections, The use of antibiotics was docum ented in 17.7% of all patients on the prevalence day, Of the patients undergoing antibiotic therapy, 16.9% had a nosocomial infection, 47.9% a community-acquired one, In the remaining 35.1% neither a nosocomial nor a community-acquired infection was confirmed.