Nosocomial infection among neonates

Nosocomial infection is also called hospital acquired infection which can be defined as: an infection acquired in a hospital by a patient who was admitted for a reason other than infection. Among all hospitalized patients, Intensive care unit patients (ICU)are at greatest risk for both endemic and epidemic nosocomial infections. The highest infection rate are seen in surgical, burn, trauma and neonatal ICU. Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) have many risk factors for infection compared with older children and adults. Premature infants are relatively immunocompromized. Like other ICU populations, they have extrinsic risk factors for infection such as prolonged hospitalization, invasive procedures, instrumentation, medical treatments and concomitant medical conditionsAlthough health care improvements and advances in diagnostic and therapeutic management in neonatal care unit(NCU) made possible the increasing survival of neonates with severe pathologic conditions, yet nosocomial infection(NI) still represent an important cause of morbidity and mortality among this population. The aim of the study is to studyincidence rates and some risk factors for acquiring NI among neonates in NCU.