Healthcare Associated Infection in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of King Abdl Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, KSA

A K Al-Zahrani,E M Eed,S H Abbadi,A A Alsulaimani

doi:10.4236/aid.2013.34046

Abstract

Healthcare-associated infection is a common problem of newborn in neonatal intensive care units. It results in high mortality rate and serious complications. The Aim: to assess the incidence, etiology and the mortality of healthcareassociated infections of patients in neonatal intensive care unit at King Abdl Aziz Specialist Hospital (KAASH), Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study including 8033 neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit during period between April, 2006 and December, 2012. The health-care associated infection rate, mortality rate, causative organism and risk factors were studied. Results: The prevalence of health-care associated infection was found to be 6.03%; the mortality rate was 27.1%. The highest prevalence was among children with the birth weight below 1000 g. The most frequent causative pathogen was klebseilla spp, followed by other gram negative bacilli. Conclusion: The rate of healthcare-associated infections in neonatal intensive care unit at KAASH was relatively high. In addition, the mortality rate was observed to be high (27.1%) owing to the high virulence of the causative organisms.

Highlights

Health-care associated infections (HAIs) continue to be a major public health problem throughout the world, especially in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
The prevalence of sepsis was calculated by dividing the number of newborns with sepsis by the total number of newborns admitted to the NICU
The studied newborn were categorized acceding to the birth weight into four groups group I, group II (1000 - 1500 g), group III (1501 - 2500 g) and group IV

Summary

Introduction

Health-care associated infections (HAIs) continue to be a major public health problem throughout the world, especially in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Neonates in the NICU are a very vulnerable group due to defective immunity and the increasing number of technology dependant infants [1,2]. Deficiencies of both innate and adaptive immunity contribute to the impaired neonatal host defense [3]. A domination of naive immune cells, functional impairments and lower leukocyte subset numbers contribute further to an increased susceptibility [4,5]. Infection control for preventing nosocomial infections may play an important role in reducing medical costs, period of hospital stay, and mortality in hospitalized patients [6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion