Predictors of Bacteraemia Among Febrile Infants in Ibadan, Nigeria (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Bacteraemia, or presence of bacteria in blood, usually indicates a serious infection and is often associated with severe morbidity and mortality (1). Bacteraemia may be a transient phenomenon with an affected child appearing ill during acute showering of bacteria, or it may be asymptomatic with destruction of bacteria and clearing by the reticulo-endothelial system (2-4). It may, however, be symptomatic and precede or occur concurrently with such severe infections as meningitis and osteomyelitis. When bacteraemia persists and is associated with toxic symptoms, the condition is often described as septicaemia (5). Various studies have found that some features might predict bacteraemia singly or in combination (2-3,6). For example, McGowan et al. reported that age between 7 and 24 months, temperature between 39.4 [degrees]C and 40.6 [degrees]C, and white blood cell count of 20,000/[mm.sup.3] were criteria with high specificity for presence of bacteraemia (7). In another study of febrile children aged less than two years, Teele et al. found that white blood cell of 15,000/[mm.sup.3], age between 7 and 18 months, temperature of 38.8 [degrees]C, and a diagnosis of pneumonia, upper respiratory infection, or fever of unknown origin had increased specificity for bacteraemia (8). While these studies show that simple criteria can predict bacteraemia, their findings may not apply to children in other settings with different disease and/or antimicrobial usage patterns.