Tuberculosis and bacterial co-infections in children

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a major public health problem nowadays without a change to be eliminated in many regions. The study aim was to evaluate the bacterial co-infections diagnosed in children with TB, in a hospital in the eastern part of Romania. Material and methods: The study group consisted of 37 children diagnosed with TB and various bacterial co-infections and admitted in a pediatric hospital in Galati County, Romania, between 2014 and 2017. Results: In our study group characterized by the mean age of 10.40, with a male/female report = 0.94, a predominance of children aged 12-17 (45.94%), and no cases were recorded in 0-1 year of age group, the most frequent localization of TB lesions was pulmonary TB primoinfection (45.86%), bacterial pneumonia was the main co-infection in children with TB (64.86%), then bacterial acute bronchitis (28.73%) and gastroenteritis (5.41%). Conclusions: Our study evidenced that bacterial pneumonia was the most frequently diagnosed co-infection in children with TB (64.86%). The most frequent bacterial co-infections pathogens were E. coli (32.43%), S. pneumoniae (27.03%), and K. pneumoniae (21.62%) and the length of stay between 4 days and 92 days.