Prevalence and Factors Associated with Bacteremia Among Children Aged Under Five Years Hospitalized with Severe Acute Malnutrition in Jinja Regional Referral Hospital
| dc.contributor.author | Dr. Abdirazak Mohamed Omar | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-08-10T08:47:05Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-08-10T08:47:05Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-03 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Background Severe acute malnutrition, the most common cause of immunodeficiency worldwide, impacts the host's natural and acquired defense mechanisms. This causes the disease to become more severe, episodes to last longer and opportunistic infections to occur. In addition, the symptoms and signs of infectious diseases are frequently concealed, making early clinical identification and treatment challenging. This study purposed to determine the prevalence, antibiogram and to describe factors associated with bacteremia among under-fives hospitalized with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in Jinja Regional Referral Hospital (JRRH). Methods This was a hospital based cross sectional-analytical study, in which children under five years admitted with SAM at JRRH were enrolled. A blood sample was taken for culture and sensitivity. Bacteremia was defined as any bacterial growth. The factors associated with bacteremia were determined using binary logistic regression in SPSS version 27. Results In our study, majority of the participants were females 107(61.7%). Fifty percent of the participants were aged ≤ 2 years. The prevalence of bacteremia was 11.5% (95% CI=6.9-16.7%). In the multivariate analysis, age ≤ 2 years (AOR=4.822, 95%CI=1.365-17.037, P=0.015), having a primary care giver not his/her own mother (AOR=8.720, 95%CI=1.896-40.091, P=0.005) and being a referral-in (AOR=10.195, 95%CI=4.097-25.370, P<0.001) were independently associated with presence of bacteremia. The most prevalent organism isolated was Staphylococcus aureus (N=12/20) followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (N=5/20) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (N=3/20). The highest sensitivity was to Meropenem, Vancomycin, Ceftriaxone, Chloramphenicol and Levofloxacin while the highest levels of resistance were found against Ampicillin and Amoxicillin overall. Conclusion The prevalence of bacteremia was high. Children admitted with severe acute malnutrition should be screened for bacteremia, with the main focus on those below 2 years, those whose primary care taker aren’t their own mothers and those referred-in. We suggest that the routine use of ampicillin and Gentamicin for prophylaxis against bacterial infection among children with SAM should be reviewed in view of the high resistance against both drugs found in our study. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12493/14850 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Kampala International University | |
| dc.title | Prevalence and Factors Associated with Bacteremia Among Children Aged Under Five Years Hospitalized with Severe Acute Malnutrition in Jinja Regional Referral Hospital | |
| dc.type | Thesis |