[Epidemiology of nosocomial infections in pediatrics].

The overall incidence of nosocomial infections (NI) in pediatrics ranges between 2.3% to 12.6%. They have great variations according to age (7-12% under 1 year of age vs 1.5-4% after ten years of age), and the nature of the unit (3-26% in intensive care units vs 1-4% in general pediatrics). The main sites of infection are in children gastrointestinal infections (10-35% of NI) and bacteremia (10-23% of NI) whereas in adults urinary tract infections (31.7 to 35%) and respiratory infections (19 to 25%) are the most frequent. Viruses represent 22-27% of the isolated pathogens, and Gram positive cocci 31-50% (half of them are coagulase negative staphylococci). The most frequent Gram negative bacilli are Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9-15%), E. coli (6-16%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (3-5%). Candida represent 3% of isolated pathogens in NI. The proportion of methicilline-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is lower in children than in adults. The prevalence of methicillin resistance of CNS is however close to that observed in adults, as is the multiresistance of Gram negative bacilli (Klebsiella). Candida infections seem an emerging problem in paediatrics. These results underline the necessity to limit the antimicrobial therapy in children as in adults.