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Nosocomial Pseudoepidemics and Pseudobacteremias

Dennis G. Maki, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1980;140(1):26-28.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, and do not appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task. Epictetus

The experience recounted by Lynch and his co-workers in this issue of the ARCHIVES (see p 65) epitomizes two phenomena that are being encountered with increasing frequency by present-day hospital epidemiologists, "pseudoepidemics" and "pseudoinfections."

A pseudoepidemic of nosocomial infections is the occurrence of an increased number of infections in the hospital, usually caused by one species, that is misconstrued as denoting a true epidemic. Recognizing a nosocomial epidemic—which, believe it or not, can often be exceedingly difficult if it is caused by a common pathogen or smolders on over a prolonged period¹—is . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Department of Medicine University of Wisconsin Clinical Science Center 600 Highland Ave Madison, WI 53792

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