[Nosocomial infection control in France: a socio-historical approach].
This article argues that the emergence of nosocomial infections as a public health issue is the result of specific socio-cultural processes. An analysis of the French periodical Revue d'Hygiène et de Médecine Sociale over the period 1953-1988 and of the discourse of national actors in the fight against hospital-acquired infections demonstrates that the recognition of nosocomial infections as a public health issue occurred almost independently of objective criteria related to frequency or severity. It is suggested that professional and societal factors provide a better explanation of the emergence of nosocomial infections as a public health issue. Nosocomial infections essentially rescued ?Hygiene', a discipline threatened by the reorganization of the university-hospital system following the 1958 reform. Having entered hospitals, hygienists have had to compete with microbiologists also involved in a subject that has attracted an increasing number of actors from a range of fields. Beyond the development of a public health issue, a battlefield of symbolic fights is thus emerging.
Le Rat
Christophe
C
Ecole des hautes études en santé publique (EHESP, avenue du professeur Léon-Bernard- CS 74312, 35043 Rennes Cedex, France.
Quélier
Christine
C
Jarno
Pascal
P
Chaperon
Jacques
J
D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005602:France; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*