TITLE:
Healthcare Associated Infection in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of King Abdl Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, KSA
AUTHORS:
A. K. Al-Zahrani, E. M. Eed, A. A. Alsulaimani, S. H. Abbadi
KEYWORDS:
Healthcare-Associated Infection; Newborn; Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.3 No.4,
December
20,
2013
ABSTRACT: Healthcare-associated infection is a
common problem of newborn in neonatal intensive care units. It results in high mortality rate and serious
complications. The Aim: to assess the incidence, etiology and the mortality of healthcareassociated infections of
patients in neonatal intensive care unit at King Abdl Aziz Specialist Hospital
(KAASH), Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Material
and Methods: This is a retrospective study including 8033 neonates admitted to neonatal
intensive care unit during period between April, 2006 and December, 2012. The health-care associated infection
rate, mortality rate, causative organism and risk factors were studied. Results: The prevalence of health-care
associated infection was found to be 6.03%; the mortality rate was 27.1%. The
highest prevalence was among children with the birth weight below 1000 g. The
most frequent causative pathogen was klebseilla spp, followed by other gram negative bacilli. Conclusion: The rate of healthcare-associated infections in neonatal intensive care unit at
KAASH was relatively high. In addition, the mortality rate was observed to be
high (27.1%) owing to the high virulence of the causative organisms.