Prevalence of nosocomial infections in a Saudi Arabian teaching hospital.

The rate of nosocomial infections was determined during a 9-month study in a 6-year-old hospital in north Saudi Arabia. The overall rate of nosocomial infection in the hospital was 2.2%. The rates in the different services varied. The highest were in the Special Care Baby Unit (13.5%) and Intensive Care Unit (6%). In the other services it ranged from 1 to 3.5%. The common causal agents of documented infections were Escherichia coli (81), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (55), Staphylococcus aureus (43), Klebsiella spp. (23), Candida spp. (15), Proteus spp. (14), enterococci (13), Enterobacter spp. (7), Acinetobacter spp. (2) and Providencia sp. (1). The most commonly infected sites from which these organisms were isolated were urine (133), wounds (48), umbilical cord (18), high vaginal infection (13), blood (11), burn respiratory tract infection (10 each).