Backgrounds:

The outcome of patients with bloodstream infections (BSI) depends on many parameters, including the etiologic agent and the age of the patient.

Methods

This is a study of BSI and the age- and pathogen-related rate in children hospitalized at the University General Hospital of Larissa, Greece during 2010-2020.

Results:

During the 11-year study period, a total of 18,480 children were hospitalized. There were 130 children with a positive blood culture that indicated true bacteremia; median age 1.6 years (Interquartile range: 4 months - 6.25 years). Ninety-five children (73.1%) with bacteremia were aged under 6 years. There was a predominance of Streptococcus agalactiae and Escherichia coli in infants younger than 3 months (59.2% of cases), as well as of Staphylococcus aureus and Brucella spp. in children older than 5 years (68.5% of cases). Among children aged 3 months to 5 years, variability of etiologic agents was observed; S. aureus, S. pneumoniae, S. pyogenes, Brucella spp. and E. coli represented 55.9% of cases (Table 1).

Table 1. Frequency of isolated pathogens according to the age group

Conclusions/Learning Points:

The frequency of the isolated pathogens in bacteremia cases varied according to the age group. There was a notable variability of etiologic agents detected in children aged 3 months to 5 years. In contrast, among children younger than 3 months and older than 5 years a clear predominance of a few pathogens was observed.