Hospital infection : from Miasmas to MRSA / Graham A.J. Ayliffe, Mary P. English.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Theories of infection: from magic to miasmas--2. The middle ages to the seventeenth century: hospitals and infection--3. The eighteenth century: hospitals and infection--4. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: typhus in military and civilian hospitals--5. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: lying-in hospitals and puerperal fever--6. The nineteenth century before Lister: military hospitals and wound infection, civilian hospitals and \'hospitalism\'--7. Theories of infection: from miasmas to microbes--8. Antisepsis to asepsis--9. The twentieth century: hospitals and miscellaneous infections--10. The twentieth century: the emergence of antimicrobial chemotherapy and the demise of the haemolytic streptococcus--11. The twentieth century: sterilization, sterile services and disinfection--12. The mid-twentieth century: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus aureus--13. The mid-twentieth century: Gram-negative bacilli--14. The control of staphylococcal and gram-negative infections--15. The surveillance of infection and the organization of infection control--16. Emerging diseases at the end of the twentieth century--17. The past, present and future.

The battle to control hospital infections has continued from the earliest days of hospital care. This account examines the evolving theories, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, & the development of medical microbiology & modern infection control.