The American journal of medicine
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Each year nosocomial bacteremia develops in approximately 194,000 patients in U. S. hospitals (5/1,000); 75,000 die. These infections portend $.28 to $.86 billion added costs to health care. ⋯ Whereas predisposing host conditions greatly increase the risk of bacteremia endemically nosocomial epidemics occur mainly in immunocompetent patients and are related to what therapeutic measures have been taken: segregation in a special care unit (58 percent of outbreaks) or exposure to infusion therapy or other invasive procedures involving the bloodstream (65 percent). At present only about one fourth of endemic nosocomial bacteremias are in theory preventable by more consistent application of existent knowledge of asepsis. The potential for prevention seems greatest for epidemic bacteremias, most of which are related to exposure to invasive devices, to a common source of contamination, or both.