Whence Come Nosocomial Infections?

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Abstract
More than a century ago, Semmelweis instituted a control measure (washing the hands before examining a patient) that decreased the occurrence of nosocomial infections after delivery in women.1 In doing so, he indirectly demonstrated a method of transmission of bacteria to hospitalized patients. Since then, a succession of investigators have described a variety of ways in which microorganisms can be transmitted to both hospital patients and employees.2 Early studies of this type showed that potential bacterial pathogens were present in or on virtually all objects sampled from the hospital environment. Such results raised the possibility that these objects might be . . .