Emergency department evaluation of febrile children after the introduction of Prevnar.

The Emergency Department work-up of febrile children is largely driven by the risk of occult bacteremia. This study was designed to determine if emergency medicine doctors had changed their work-up of febrile children after introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in 2000. We surveyed 411 licensed emergency doctors in Tennessee in 2001. Participants were presented with a hypothetical eight-month-old, well-appearing child with a temperature of 102.2 degrees F with no source of infection. They were asked about practice setting, years in practice, laboratory evaluation and whether their work-up of febrile children had changed in the past year. Of those surveyed, 238 (58%) of 411 completed a survey. Of these, 39 were excluded, leaving a study group of 199. Thirty-two (16%) of 196 respondents to the practice-setting question worked in university-affiliated hospitals, and 164 (84%) worked in community hospitals. Twenty-seven (14%) of 196 respondents had been in practice for five years or less, and 169 (86%) respondents had been in practice for greater than five years. One-hundred-and-thirty-eight (69%) of 199 respondents chose to order a complete blood count and 92 (46%) respondents ordered blood cultures. Overall, 22 (11%) respondents stated that they had changed their work-up in the past year. This survey of emergency doctors demonstrates that changes in the work-up of the febrile child were beginning to occur in the year after the introduction of PCV. Because of the dramatic decrease in invasive pneumococcal disease since introduction of the vaccine, future surveys will be needed to determine if the evaluation of febrile children has changed since this survey was conducted.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens contamination associated with a manufacturing defect in bronchoscopes.

BACKGROUND: Several outbreaks and pseudo-outbreaks of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens infections associated with bronchoscopy have been reported. We conducted an investigation of P. aeruginosa and S. marcescens isolates related to bronchoscopy at a community hospital. METHODS: We reviewed the records of all bronchoscopic procedures at the community hospital from July to October 2001. Environmental samples were obtained. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed on isolates of P. aeruginosa. RESULTS: From July 1 to October 31, 2001, 66 bronchoscopic procedures were performed in 60 patients, and 43 specimens were obtained for bacterial culture; 20 of the specimens (47 percent) were positive for P. aeruginosa. Six (30 percent) of the specimens that were positive for P. aeruginosa also yielded S. marcescens. All 20 P. aeruginosa isolates were associated with procedures performed with three of four new bronchoscopes from the same manufacturer. Contrary to manufacturing specifications, the biopsy-port caps on all four bronchoscopes were easily removable, and P. aeruginosa was cultured from the biopsy ports of the three implicated bronchoscopes. The PFGE patterns of P. aeruginosa isolates from the bronchoscopes, patients, and two environmental samples were indistinguishable. One patient was hospitalized with P. aeruginosa pneumonia 11 days after bronchoscopy. The manufacturer reported a design change instituted in 1997, and production problems may have resulted in the distribution of bronchoscopes that did not meet specifications. CONCLUSIONS: We documented contamination of bronchoscopes with P. aeruginosa and S. marcescens and possible infection of patients at a community hospital as a result of the inadequate disinfection of bronchoscopes because of a manufacturing defect.