[Surveillance system for nosocomial infections due to drug-resistant organisms in Japan and other countries].

The national nosocomial infection surveillance systems in Japan as well as American-European countries were overlooked. The NNIS/CDC system, which started in 1970, is the only continuous surveillance system focusing on the improvement of prevention of nosocomial infection in US. Other surveillance systems being started in 1980's in European countries were prevalence studies, most of which studied prevalence of nosocomial infections and audited drug-resistance organisms. The Japanese nosocomial infection surveillance system, which started in 2000 by Ministry of Health and Welfare, is attempting to promote system improvement of prevention of nosocomial infection where a risk-adjusted outcome was used as an evaluation criteria.