[Hospital infections: the problems and ways to resolve them].

The authors present the critical analysis of the existing situation in the spread of purulent septic infections in surgical hospitals of the USSR and the state of epidemiological surveillance. Considering this situation to be highly unfavorable, the authors propose a number of urgent organizational measures (the inclusion of hospital epidemiologists into the medical staff of large clinics, the system of training in this problem). The article deals with the specific features of the epidemiological process in purulent septic infections and the main principles of the organization of the epidemiological surveillance system for this group of infections.