ABSTRACT
AIM: To assess the duration of antimicrobial treatment; hospital length of stay; and invasive bacterial infections rates in hospitalised infants following the adoption of a management guideline. METHODS: Faculty agreed to a standard of 24 h of antibiotic treatment for well-appearing febrile infants with proven viral infection and no growth on bacterial cultures. The outcomes were the duration of hospitalisation and antibiotic treatment of febrile infants less than 8 weeks of age who have enterovirus, parechovirus, respiratory viruses detected. We monitored re-admissions and missed invasive infections. RESULTS: Of the total 1696 infants studied, the median antibiotic treatment duration decreased from 31.5 to 24.8 h in virus-infected infants ≤21 days of age (p = 0.02) and from 26 to 19.7 h in infants 22-56 days of age (p < 0.001). The decrease was less in infants not infected with a virus. No patient had an invasive infection identified after discharge. CONCLUSION: The implementation of our care standard resulted in reduction in antibiotic treatment duration without known delayed diagnosis of bacterial infections. Infants without a proven viral aetiology may need further study to inform management decisions.
Subject(s)
Infant, Newborn, Diseases , Listeriosis/congenital , Female , Humans , Infant, Newborn , MaleABSTRACT
The rate of Ig-bearing lymphocytes (B-cells) and of rosette-forming cells (T-cells) in peripheral blood as well as the lymphocyte response to phytohaemagglutinine (PHA) stimulation were evaluated in 19 small-for-date infants in order to assess both humoral and cellular immunity. A significant decrease of Ig-positive cells and of E-rosettes was found, compared with new-borns of appropriate birth weight, However, the response to PHA stimulation appeared to be impaired in only 3 of the observed cases.