How outbreaks can contribute to prevention of nosocomial infection: analysis of 1,022 outbreaks.

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of nosocomial outbreaks published in the scientific literature.

Design: Descriptive information was obtained from a sample of 1,022 published nosocomial outbreaks from 1966 to 2002.

Methods: Published nosocomial outbreaks of the most important nosocomial pathogens were included in the database.