Infection Control for Healthcare-Associated Infections in Pediatric Patients / 한양의대학술지

ABSTRACT

The history of healthcare-associated infections in children is tied closely to the progress of medicine itself. With the advent of crucial invasive procedures and new therapies, longer survival from conditions formerly causing early death are noticed and at the same time have also increased the numbers of immunocompromised children with impaired host defenses resulting in healthcare-associated infections as the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units. Widespread use of new broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents has caused the rise of antibiotic resistant microorganisms and fungi as the etiologies of healthcare-associated infections. A number of pediatric collaborative studies have thus been done to attain optimal practices that result in decreasing rates of healthcare-associated infections. Furthermore, emerging evidence about risk factors for various healthcare-associated infections in children is guiding us in targeting adjunctive preventive intervention. Prevention of healthcare-associated infections is based on infection control strategies that aim to limit susceptibility to infections by enhancing host defenses, interrupting transmission of organisms by healthcare workers and by promoting the judicious use of antimicrobials. With changes in the risk factors for healthcare-associated infections, more studies on Korean children are needed to provide the optimal tools for better outcome.