Serial nosocomial transmission of Plasmodium falciparum malaria from patient to nurse to patient.

Background: Nosocomial transmission of malaria is a rare phenomenon in the United States.

Objective: To describe the probable transmission of Plasmodium falciparum malaria from a patient to a healthcare worker and then from the healthcare worker to another patient.

Design: Case series.

Detection of postoperative surgical-site infections: comparison of health plan-based surveillance with hospital-based programs.

Background: Review of health plan administrative data has been shown to be more sensitive than other methods for identifying postdischarge surgical-site infections (SSIs), but there has not been a direct comparison between this method and hospital-based surveillance for all infections, including those diagnosed before discharge. We compared these two methods for identifying SSIs following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures.

Methods: We studied 1,352 CABG procedures performed among members of one health plan from March 1993 through June 1997.