Bacteraemia due to Staphylococcus aureus.

AIMS: To describe the clinical features and outcome of bacteraemia due to Staphylococcus aureus in children admitted to a rural Kenyan hospital. METHODS: Retrospective case review of all children with a positive blood culture for S aureus admitted to Kilifi District Hospital, Kenya, between January 1996 and December 2001. RESULTS: Ninety seven children (median age 17 months, range 1 day to 12 years; 46 male) with bacteraemia due to S aureus were identified, accounting for 5% of all positive blood cultures; 10 were considered to be nosocomially acquired. A focus that was clinically consistent with staphylococcal infection was identified in 52 cases; of these, 88% had multiple foci. Children with a focus were likely to be older, present later, and have a longer duration of hospital stay. Most children in this group (90%) received intravenous cloxacillin on admission in contrast to none of those without a focus. In the former group, mortality was only 6% compared to 47% among those without a focus; 10/13 neonates without an apparent staphylococcal focus died compared to none of the 11 with a focus. Eight of the 10 neonates in the former group died within 48 hours of admission, before empirical antibiotics could be changed to include cloxacillin. CONCLUSIONS: Children most at risk of death associated with bacteraemia due to S aureus are least likely to have clinical features traditionally associated with this infection.

Causes and outcome of young infant admissions to a Kenyan district hospital.

AIMS: To provide a comprehensive description of young infant admissions to a first referral level health facility in Kenya. These data, currently lacking, are important given present efforts to standardise their care through the integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) and for prioritising both health care provision and disease prevention strategies. METHODS: Prospective, 18 month observational study in a Kenyan district hospital of all admissions less than 3 months of age to the paediatric ward. RESULTS: A total of 1080 infants were studied. Mortality was 18% overall, though in those aged 0-7 days it was 34%. Within two months of discharge a further 5% of infants aged <60 days on admission had died. Severe infection and prematurity together accounted for 57% of inpatient deaths in those aged <60 days, while jaundice and tetanus accounted for another 27%. S pneumoniae, group B streptococcus, E coli, and Klebsiella spp. were the most common causes of invasive bacterial disease. Hypoxaemia, hypoglycaemia, and an inability to feed were each present in more than 20% of infants aged 0-7 days. Both hypoxaemia and the inability to feed were associated with inpatient death (OR 3.8 (95% CI 2.5 to 5.8) and 7.4 (95% CI 4.8 to 11.2) respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Young infants contribute substantially to paediatric inpatient mortality at the first referral level, highlighting the need both for basic supportive care facilities and improved disease prevention strategies.

Non-typhi salmonella in children with severe malaria.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between Plasmodium falciparum malaria and non-typhi Salmonella in children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional hospital based study. SETTING: Kilifi District Hospital (KDH) between January 1997 and June 2001. SUBJECTS: Children aged between three months to 123 months (mean age 28.28 months) and who had been admitted to the paediatric or High Dependency Research Ward (HDRW) of the KDH. METHODS: A total of 19, 118 blood cultures routinely obtained for all admissions and 1,820 clinically indicated stools samples were obtained from 9,147 children admitted with malaria. The specimens were cultured and antibiotic sensitivity done using standard laboratory procedures with stringent internal and external quality control in place. RESULTS: The total bacterial pathogens isolated from blood and stool were 1,395/19,118 (7.3%) and 342/1,820 (19%) respectively. Non-typhi salmonella consisted of 260/1,395 (18.6%) of the positive blood cultures and 92/324 (28.4%) of the stool cultures out of which a total of 101 NTS occurred in children with severe malaria. Out of the 9,147 malaria cases admitted, 101/9,147 (1.10%) had concomitant NTS infection. NTS with severe malaria as a proportion of all malaria admissions for the period varied between 0.8% and 1.5%. There was a significant association (p-value=0.032) between clinical outcome of death and female sex of the patient. The NTS isolates which occurred with severe malaria showed various levels of antibiotic resistance. They were resistant to ampicillin (35%), chloramphenicol (18%), gentamicin (22%), cefuroxime (29%), sulphamethoxazole-trimethoprim (39%), ciprofloxacin (3%), cefotaxime (14%), amoxycillin-clavulanic acid (26%) and tobramycin (18.0%). Multidrug resistance (MDR) was seen in 34 (33.6%) of the isolates. CONCLUSIONS: NTS and severe malaria occurring together are a problem in this area and that a large number of the isolates are MDR. An elaborate case-controlled study is required to elucidate the chain of events of both NTS and malaria parasite co-existence.

Diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis in children at a district hospital in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis in children is difficult in sub-Saharan Africa, because the clinical features overlap with those of other common diseases, and laboratory facilities are inadequate in many areas. We have assessed the value of non-laboratory tests and incomplete laboratory data in diagnosing childhood acute bacterial meningitis in this setting. METHODS: We prospectively studied 905 children undergoing lumbar puncture at a rural district hospital in Kenya over 1 year. We related microbiological findings and cerebrospinal-fluid (CSF) laboratory measurements to tests that would typically be available at such a hospital. FINDINGS: Acute bacterial meningitis was proven in 45 children (5.0% [95% CI 3.7-6.6]) and probable in 26 (2.9% [1.9-4.2]). 21 of the 71 cases of proven or probable acute bacterial meningitis had neither neck stiffness nor turbid CSF. In eight of 45 children with proven disease the CSF leucocyte count was less than 10x10(6)/L or leucocyte counting was not possible because of blood-staining. The presence of either a leucocyte count of 50x10(6)/L or more or a CSF/blood glucose ratio of 0.10 or less detected all but two of the 45 children with proven acute bacterial meningitis; these two samples were grossly blood-stained. INTERPRETATION: The diagnosis of childhood acute bacterial meningitis is likely to be missed in a third of cases at district hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa without adequate and reliable laboratory resources. CSF culture facilities are expensive and difficult to maintain, and greater gains could be achieved with facilities for accurate leucocyte counting and glucose measurement.

Bacteraemia complicating severe malaria in children.

Bacteraemia associated with severe malaria in childhood is a sporadically reported phenomenon but its incidence and clinical importance are unknown. We have reviewed clinical and laboratory data from 783 Kenyan children sequentially admitted with a primary diagnosis of severe malaria. The overall incidence of bacteraemia in children with severe malaria was 7.8% (95% CI 5.5-10.0); however, in children under 30 months of age the incidence was 12.0% (95% CI 8.3-15.7). The presence of bacteraemia was associated with a 3-fold increase in mortality (33.3% vs. 10.4%, P < 0.001). We conclude that invasive bacterial disease may contribute to the pathophysiology of the clinical syndrome of severe malaria in an important subgroup of children. We recommend that young children with severe malaria be treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics in addition to antimalarial drugs.

Cerebral malaria versus bacterial meningitis in children with impaired consciousness.

Cerebral malaria (CM) and acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) are the two common causes of impaired consciousness in children presenting to hospital in sub-Sahara Africa. Since the clinical features of the two diseases may be very similar, treatment is often guided by the initial laboratory findings. However, no detailed studies have examined the extent to which the laboratory findings in these two diseases may overlap. We reviewed data from 555 children with impaired consciousness admitted to Kilifi District Hospital, Kenya. Strictly defined groups were established based on the malaria slide, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leucocyte count and the results of blood and CSF culture and CSF bacterial antigen testing. Our data suggests significant overlap in the initial CSF findings between CM and ABM. The absolute minimum proportions of children with impaired consciousness and malaria parasitaemia who also had definite bacterial meningitis were 4% of all children and 14% of children under 1 year of age. The estimated maximum proportion of all children with impaired consciousness and malaria parasitaemia in whom the diagnosis was dual or unclear was at least 13%. The finding of malaria parasites in the blood of an unconscious child in sub-Saharan Africa is not sufficient to establish a diagnosis of cerebral malaria, and acute bacterial meningitis must be actively excluded in all cases.

Serotype distribution and prevalence of resistance to benzylpenicillin in three representative populations of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from the coast of Kenya.

As surveillance data from sub-Saharan Africa are few, three representative populations of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates were examined in Kenya for serotype distribution and Etest minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of benzylpenicillin: (1) 75 lung aspirate or blood culture isolates from 301 consecutive adult patients with pneumonia, (2) 112 invasive isolates from continuous pediatric inpatient surveillance over 4 years, and (3) 97 nasopharyngeal isolates from systematically selected sick children. The proportions with benzylpenicillin MICs of > or = 0.1 microgram/mL were 0.27, 0.29, and 0.47, respectively. Vaccine-related serotypes accounted for 96% of invasive isolates from children and 90% of those from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive adults. Serotype 1 accounted for 44% of pneumococci from HIV-seronegative patients but only 5% of those from HIV-seropositive patients (P = .0002). Of serotype 1 isolates, 98% were susceptible to benzylpenicillin, but serogroups 13, 14, 19, and 23 were strongly associated with an MIC of > or = 0.1 microgram/mL.