title: Infectious diseases and child day care.
abstract: It is estimated that more than 5.3 million children attend out-of-home child day care in the United States. This includes 2.1 million children who attend approximately 63,000 licensed child day-care centers. An additional 500,000 children receive care in 105,000 regulated day-care homes. Since the total regulated child care slots available in centers and homes are only 2.6 million, some 2.7 million additional children are likely attending unregulated family day-care homes. As a result infants and preschool children are intermingled in child care facilities that often lack adequate toilet and hand-washing facilities and are frequently staffed by individuals with little or no training in the area of infection control. Placing children in out-of-home care should not compromise their health and that of the community. The risk of infection can be lessened by teaching hygiene, supervising unregulated day-care facilities and regular antibiotic use so that bacterial resistance may be prevented.
authors.affiliation: Acute Disease Epidemiology Section, Minnesota Department of Health, Minneapolis 55440.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Osterholm
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Reves
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Murph
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Pickering
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents