Affiliations: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Red Cross War Memorial
Children's Hospital and Division of Pediatric Critical Care and Children's
Heart Disease, School of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town,
Cape Town, South Africa | Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, Red Cross
Children's Hospital and Division of Pediatrics, School of Child and Adolescent
Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Note: [] Correspondence: Andrew C. Argent, M Med, FCPaeds (SA), FRCPCH
(UK), School of Child and Adolescent Health, Institute of Child Health, Red
Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, Klipfontein Road, Rondebosch, Cape
Town, 7700 South Africa. Tel.: +27216585369; Fax: +27216891287; E-mail: Andrew.
argent@uct.ac.za
Abstract: Consensus definitions of pediatric sepsis clearly include viral
infections, and yet most studies of sepsis in the intensive care environment
specifically exclude viral infections. Viral infections are a common cause of
admission to the pediatric or neonatal intensive care. They are probably
underestimated, and new techniques of viral identification offer an opportunity
to expand our understanding of the true impact of viral infections on critical
illness in childhood. Not only are viral infections a cause of admission, but
they may also constitute a significant component and risk of nosocomial
infections in the pediatric intensive care unit. Specific antiviral therapies
are limited, and in many cases immunization and prevention is the most
effective approach to severe viral infections. With climate changes, the
distribution of insect borne viral infections is changing across the world and
these infections are starting to occur in new geographical areas. Attention has
to be paid to the issue of protection of pediatric intensive care staff against
viral infections.
