[Hospital acquired infections in children (author's transl)].

The incidence of hospital-accquired infections in children as given in the literature varies between 0.3%--25%. The most frequent infections are those of the urinary tract, respiratory tract, skin, wounds, gastrointestinal tract, or septicemia, and meningitis, caused by staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, klebsiella, enterobacter, pseudomonas, proteus, fungi or virus. Besides the identification of the type of infectious agent it is most important for the prevention and therapy of hospital-acquired infections to wash and desinfect hands, to isolate affected children, especially those with low resistance, employment of trained staff, improvement of special nursing techniques, repeated training and motivation of staff personal, and the critical use of antibiotics.