Epidemiologic trends in nosocomial bacteremia in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Corresponding author: Dr. Hsiao-Chuan Lin, Department of Pediatrics, China Medical University Hospital, 2 Yuh Der Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan. E-mail: b7901041@yahoo.com.tw Nosocomial infections are responsible for significant morbidity and late mortality among neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients, resulting in prolonged hospital stay and increased health care costs [1-7]. Multicenter and institutional surveillance data indicated that bloodstream infection was the most common nosocomial infection in NICUs [8,9]. The variability of endemic nosocomial infection rates among centers with similar patient populations suggests that the rigorous implementation of health care practice and the existence of predisposing factors will influence the nosocomial infection rates. Some reports demonstrated that through the improvement of health care practice, nosocomial infection rates would decrease [2,10]. Elucidation of epidemiologic risk factors and trends of nosocomial infection will help in the development of measures to control the occurrence of nosocomial infections in NICUs. The NICU at China Medical University Hospital was founded in 1996. The primary goal of this study was to analyze the characteristics of nosocomial Department of Pediatrics and Section of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan