SAN DIEGO – The incidence rate of serious bacterial infections in infants age 1 week to 3 months is relatively low, at 4.6/1,000 full-term births, results from a long-term study showed.
In addition, Escherichia coli is the most common cause of bacteremia, urinary tract infections, and meningitis in this patient population.
Courtesy CDC/Janice Haney Carr
Escherichia coli (shown here) is the most common cause of bacteremia, urinary tract infections, and meningitis among infants age 1 week to 3 months.
Despite decades of research, the incidence rate and current risk factors of serious bacterial infections have not been performed," investigators led by Dr. Tara L. Greenhow wrote in a poster presented during IDWeek, the combined annual meetings of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
Dr. Greenhow, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente Northern California, San Francisco, and her associates retrospectively reviewed all blood, urine, cerebral spine fluid, and stool cultures in 216,005 full-term healthy infants aged 1 week to 3 months between Jan. 1, 2005, and Sept. 1, 2011. Cultures were collected in the outpatient setting, emergency department, or first 24 hours of hospitalization. Nonpathogens were excluded from the analysis.
During the study period, 871 infants had a total of 1,004 serious bacterial infections, including 841 urinary tract infections, 125 cases of bacteremia, 22 cases of bacterial gastroenteritis, and 16 cases of bacterial meningitis. A higher proportion of males than females were affected by each infection, with the exception of meningitis, which affected females in 9 cases (56%). No cases of Listeria or meningococcal infection were observed.
The researchers reported that the overall incidence rate of serious bacterial infections was 4.6/1,000 full-term births, while the incidence rate of febrile serious bacterial infections was 3.5/1,000 full-term births. The incidence rate of bacteremia, UTI, meningitis, and gastroenteritis was 0.58, 3.89, 0.08, and 0.10 per 1,000 full-term births, respectively.
E. coli was the culprit in 64% of bacteremia cases, 91% of UTIs, and 44% of meningitis cases, while Salmonella sp. was the most common cause of gastroenteritis (86%).
Other authors on the study were Yun-Yi Hung, Ph.D., and Dr. Arnd Herz. The project was funded by a community benefit grant from Kaiser Permanente Northern California. The investigators had no relevant financial disclosures.