Infection
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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are a leading cause of hospital admissions in small children. A substantial proportion of these patients require medical and nursing care, which can only be provided in intermediate (IMC) or intensive care units (ICU). This article reports on all children aged < 3 years who required admission to IMC and/or ICU between October 1, 2001 and September 30, 2005 in Switzerland. ⋯ In Switzerland, RSV infections lead to the IMC/ICU admission of approximately 1%-2% of each annual birth cohort. Although prematurity, BPD, and CHD are significant risk factors, non-pharmacological preventive strategies should not be restricted to these high-risk patients but also target young NT/FT infants since they constitute 77% of infants requiring IMC/ICU admission.
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The oxazolidinone antibiotic linezolid has demonstrated efficacy in treating infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In a retrospective analysis of two prospective randomized clinical trials in patients with nosocomial pneumonia (NP), initial therapy with linezolid produced significantly better clinical cure and survival rates than vancomycin in the subset of patients with documented MRSA infection. This study was designed to evaluate the economic impact of these clinical outcomes from the perspective of the German health care system to determine the use of these regimens in the light of limited resources and rising costs. ⋯ The model estimated a higher clinical cure (+8.7%) and survival (+13.2%) for linezolid compared with vancomycin at an incremental cost of
420 per treatment episode. The cost-benefit profile suggests that linezolid could be considered a cost-effective alternative to vancomycin in the treatment of patients with NP caused by suspected MRSA in Germany.