[Hospital infections in children in a general hospital].

INTRODUCTION

The following is a summary of what was found after setting into motion an epidemiological surveillance system of nosocomial infections occurring in the Pediatrics Ward of a 2nd level general hospital.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The rate of interhospital infections was 7.6 episodes per 100 patients discharged; the most frequent infections were diarrheas (40.6%), urosepsis (14.3%) and pneumoniae (12.1%). The mortality rate was 0.33 deaths per 100 episodes. The average number of days spent in the hospital by the general population is 7.3 days and for infected patients, 24. The germs most frequently found were Klebsiella and E. coli.

CONCLUSIONS

The control of nosocomial infections requires more efficient surveillance systems for all hospitals.