Nosocomial infection among pediatric oncology patients in Zagazig University Hospital

This work was done to study the problem of nosocomial infection in our pediatric oncology unit at Zagazig University hospital from January up to September 2011 to determine the incidence of nosocomial infection among pediatric patients with neoplastic diseases, sites of nosocomial infection, causative organisms, and outcomes of nosocomial infection. Patients and methods: This study included 50 patients admitted to pediatric oncology unit of Zagazig University Hospital. The investigations, were done including CBC, CRP, blood culture.Results: This study showed that out of the 50 patients included, 13 cases (26%) had nosocomial infection, 76.9% of them was 5 years or less. Nosocomial bacteriemia represented in this work 38.5% of the nosocomial infection followed by candidemia (30.8%), pneumonia (23.1%) and UTI (7.7%). The most frequent organism was Staphylococcus aureus (69.2%), followed by Candida albicans (30.8%). These patients often face lengthy periods of low immunity, undergo longer hospital stays, expose to malnutrition, blood transfusion, empirical use of antibiotics and there is a greater chance that they will require central venous catheterizations, urinary catheterizations and endotracheal intubations. Moreover, these factors put patients at an increased risk of contracting Nosocomial Infections (NIs) and substantially increase morbidity and mortality rates as well as treatment costs.