One of every 14 American infants is hospitalized for a respiratory illness, kidney infection, septicemia, or other infectious disease before age one, according to a new study by researchers with HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite advances in public health, childhood infectious diseases continue to be a major health problem in the United States.
The researchers found that 4 of every 10 babies -- 287,000 - that are hospitalized before reaching one year of age were treated for an infectious disease. In nearly 60 percent of the cases, infants had to be treated for lower respiratory tract infections, especially bronchiolitis and pneumonia. Kidney, urinary tract, and bladder infections (8 percent) were the second-leading cause at 8 percent, followed by septicemia, or blood poisoning, which accounted for 7 percent.
Hispanic infants accounted for a disproportionate share of admissions -- percent 23 -- about a third involved white infants, 12 percent African-American infants, and just 2 percent Asian or Pacific Islander infants. |
