Infectious diseases in hospitalized children of central Iran

Despite dramatic progress in their treatment and prevention, infectious diseases remain a major cause of death and debility around the world. We planned this study to determine the epidemiologic features of infectious diseases in children [0 to 12 years] admitted to the Fatemieh Hospital in Qom, Central Iran. In this retrospective descriptive study the data were collected from medical records of 892 patients with infectious diseases admitted to the Fatemieh Hospital in Qom during summer 2007 [22 June through 22 September]. The epidemiologic features were analyzed using SPSS software. Eight hundred ninety two out of 2105 [42%] admitted cases to the Fatemieh Hospital during summer 2007 [22 June through 22 September] were infectious diseases. The most frequent infections were gastroenteritis, pneumonia and urinary tract infection; 57.6%, 11% and 7.1%, respectively. Mortality rate of infectious diseases was 0.3%. This study confirms the continuing importance of pediatric infectious diseases in central Iran especially gastroenteritis and pneumonia. Improvement of hygienic conditions of water supply and routine use of pneumococcal and Haemophilus influenzae vaccines are suggested