If

is a sequence of independent identically distributed discrete random pairs with

, Slepian and Wolf have shown that the

process and the

process can be separately described to a common receiver at rates

and

hits per symbol if

. A simpler proof of this result will be given. As a consequence it is established that the Slepian-Wolf theorem is true without change for arbitrary ergodic processes

and countably infinite alphabets. The extension to an arbitrary number of processes is immediate.