Incidence of bacteremia among febrile children with sickle cell anaemia in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The study included ninety patients with sickle cell anaemia. Their age ranged from 9 months to 13 years [55 males and 35 females]. All patients were febrile with a range of temp 38-40 C. Six patients with age of 24 months or younger were bacteraemic with streptococcus pneumonia except for one who had meningitis and haemophilus influenze type b was recovered from CSF culture. The mean of temperature of bacteraemic group was 39.8 C and WBC count 22.333/cumm while that of nonbacteraemic patients was 39.4 C and W. B. C 16.200/cumm. The difference was statistically significant, only for WBC [P less than