Effect of infections on hospital care.

To determine research priorities in infectious diseases, the impact of infections on hospital care in the United States is estimated from the number of infectious diseases observed in hospitals that cooperate with the Center for Disease Control in surveillance of community-acquired and nosocomial infections. Each year, over 3 million community-acquired infections require persons to be hospitalized, and over 2 million nosocomial infections are acquired. Approximately 90% of the infections treated in hospitals are bacterial. These infections account for an estimated 29 million days of acute hospital care, which is approximately 10% of the patient days in United States acute-care hospitals. The direct hospitalization costs for treating infectious diseases are estimated to be over $4.8 billion. Treatment of infectious diseases accounts for a major portion of hospital care in the United States.