The authors present guidelines for the first prevalence survey of nosocomial infections in the University Hospital "Madre Teresa" in Tirana (almost 1,600 beds), the only tertiary health-care centre in Albania. The survey is a joint project involving Italy and Albania, to be coordinated by the Italian National Health Institute. The paper describes goals, methodology and organization of the prevalence survey. The improvement of local expertise in epidemiology and microbiology is one of the most important goals. Therefore, Albanian personnel training and improvement of the infection microbiological diagnosis are fundamental aspects of the project.