title: Surveillance of infection in neonatal intensive care units.
abstract: Monitoring infection rates is increasingly regarded as an important contributor to safe and high quality health care, especially in intensive care settings. Early-onset neonatal sepsis rates are an important indicator of ante- and intra-partum care, especially as medicalisation of obstetric practice increases. However, surveillance of late-onset neonatal sepsis is required to monitor the quality of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)-related care. Infection surveillance on NICUs presents a number of unique challenges, including defining infections, the preponderance of coagulase-negative staphylococci as both pathogens and commensals, and allowing for the influence of important risk factors. Ideally an infection surveillance programme should permit benchmarking of infection rates, and multi-centre programmes have been reported to decrease the incidence of healthcare-associated infections on NICUs. However, further research is required to identify the most clinically- and cost-effective means of surveying NICU-acquired infections before a national programme can be implemented. Until then, considerable value can be obtained from local infection surveillance.
authors.affiliation: Birmingham Children's Hospital, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham, B4 6NH, UK. jim.gray@bch.nhs.uk
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Gray
mesh_terms: D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology