Petignat C, Blanc D S, Francioli P
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Division autonome de médecine préventive hospitalière, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1998 Aug;19(8):593-6. doi: 10.1086/647880.
Even with a good surveillance program, nosocomial infections may be not recognized because of several reasons: absence of symptoms or prolonged incubation period (eg, viral bloodborne infections, tuberculosis); problems with the microbiological diagnosis, because adequate specimens may be difficult to obtain or special methods should be used (eg, fungal infections, virus, new agents); shorter hospital stays (eg, surgical-site infections); difficulty in distinguishing between nosocomial and community-acquired infections (eg, influenza); and failure to detect clinically relevant colonization (eg, multiresistant microorganisms). Because of the important potential consequences of occult nosocomial infections, specific surveillance programs should be designed to address these problems.
