Decreasing hospital-associated rotavirus infection: a multidisciplinary hand hygiene campaign in a children's hospital.

Objective: Hand hygiene is an effective means of preventing hospital-associated infection, but compliance among health care workers is poor. Few studies aimed at increasing hand hygiene in the hospital setting have shown sustained improvement and concurrent decreases in hospital-associated infections, and even fewer have been performed in the pediatric setting.

Methods: We implemented a hand hygiene program with the hopes of improving hand hygiene and decreasing hospital-associated rotavirus infection rates.

A population-based study of primary human herpesvirus 6 infection.

Background: Serologic studies indicate that human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) infects 90 percent of children by two years of age. Little is known about the acquisition, virologic course, and clinical manifestations of HHV-6 infection.

Methods: We prospectively studied a cohort of 277 children from birth through the first two years of life to define the pattern of acquisition of HHV-6.

An outbreak of Salmonella serotype Saintpaul in a children's hospital.

Objectives: To describe a nosocomial outbreak of Salmonella serotype Saintpaul gastroenteritis and to explore risk factors for infection.

Design: Case-control study.

Setting: A 208-bed, university-affiliated children's hospital.