THE PATTERN OF PAEDIATRIC EMERGENCY VISITS FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES

The paediatric emergency room is an important part of hospital services. High emergency room utilization is a considerable concern for the increasing cost of health care. This is a retrospective study including only patients with infectious diagnosis presenting at the emergency room of the pediatric hospital at University Hospital Centre “Mother Teresa” during the year 2013. During the year 2013 a total of 1763 patients visited the emergency room for various infectious diseases. The mean age of children was 3.7 years which is the pre-school age. The category “Infection of respiratory system” were found more frequent in 637(36.1%) of total cases, with Bronchopneumonia (49.7%) and Bronchiolitis (33.1%) being more frequent illnesses of this category. The second category was “Viral infection” in 553 (31.4%) patients. Acute Gastroenteritis ranked third in 240 (13.6%) of cases followed by sepsis (9.1%), urinary tract infections (5.4%) of cases, visceral leishmaniasis (4.3%). 29% of visits were not in emergency category. There is a need to introduce triage to reduce the burden on emergency facilities for trivial complaints, and rationalize the availability of primary care. Non severe cases such as upper respiratory tract infections, mild gastroenteritis, and other infections could be handled at a primary care family physician.