Trends in paediatric bloodstream infections at a South African referral hospital

BMC Pediatrics

Table 1 Demographic profile of paediatric patients with bloodstream infection

Variable	Number (n)	Percentage (%)	Age	Age	Age	p-value
			<1 yr	1 - 5 yrs	5 - 14 yrs
			(n; %)	(n; %)	(n; %)
Laboratory confirmed-BSI episodes*	864	100%	506 (58.6)	206 (23.8)	152 (17.6)	-
Median age (months)	7.5	IQR	3.2	18.2	96	-
Median age (months)		2.9-23.8
Male	496	57.4	298 (58.9)	111 (53.9)	89 (58.5)	0.41
HIV status
- Positive	116	13.4	68 (13)	31 (15)	17 (11)
- Negative	448	52	271 (54)	101 (49)	76 (50)	0.57
- Unknown	299	34.6	167 (33)	74 (36)	59 (39)
Onset of BSI ^#
- Community-acquired	460	53.2	244 (53)	133 (29)	83 (18)	<0.001
- Hospital-acquired	404	46.8	262 (65)	73 (18)	69 (17)
Ward at BSI diagnosis
- Intensive care	185	21.4	140 (28)	33 (16)	12 (8)	<0.001
- General ward	679	78.6	366 (72)	173 (84)	140 (92)
BSI outcome
- Died	176	20.4	109 (22)	45 (22)	22 (14)	0.13
- Survived	688	79.6	397 (78)	161 (78)	130 (86)
Crude mortality rate by age	-	20.4	21.5	21.8	14.5	-

*BSI episodes: blood culture sampling episodes that yielded a pathogen, excluding blood cultures that isolated the same organism within 14 days of the original sampling episode; IQR = interquartile range; ^#CA-BSI = BC submitted within first 72 hours of admission; HA-BSI = BC submitted > 72 hours after admission. Continuous and categorical variables were compared using student t tests and Chi square analysis respectively; p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

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