RESUMO
BACKGROUND: To describe the practical problems related to urinary tract infection (UTI) management in febrile Vietnamese children. METHODS: During a prospective 28-month inclusion period, 143 febrile children with significant bacteriuria were treated for UTI in the nephrology department of Nhi Dong 2 children's hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Patients were treated after blood and urine samples had been taken for culture, according to a local antibiotic protocol, parenterally with ceftriaxone 75mg/kg/day. Oral treatment with cefixime 8mg/kg/day was started after 48h of apyrexia for 2 weeks. According to local protocol, antibiotic therapy was only changed if children did not respond clinically to treatment regardless of antibiogram results. RESULTS: Among these 143 children, 51% were girls and 80% of them had their first UTI before the age of 2 years. The commonest causative agent was Escherichia coli (80% of cases) with a high resistance rate to ampicillin (91%) and cotrimoxazole (74%). Extended-spectrum ß-lactamase (ESBL) production was observed in 52% of Enterobacteriaceae isolates. According to antibiotic susceptibility, the initial treatment with ceftriaxone was found to be inappropriate in 63% of cases. CONCLUSIONS: E. coli was responsible for 80% of UTIs in Vietnamese children with a high rate of resistance to first-line antibiotics. ESBL production was found to be extremely high in this study. Based on these data, we propose a new empiric treatment schedule for Vietnamese children suspected of UTI.