Microbiological monitoring of the infectious control system of neonatal hospitals
Objective: to determine the efficacy of microbiological monitoring in the prevention of neonatal infectious and inflammatory diseases at a specific hospital. The authors retrospectively analyzed the 2007 and 2011 results of microbiological examination (feces and throat swabs are nonsterile specimens) and the nosological and etiological patterns of infectious and inflammatory diseases in 952 newborn infants. Changing an antibiotic policy at the department was found to affect the composition of microbial communities inhabiting the gastrointestinal mucosa of neonatal infants. The change in the composition of microbial colonization of the mucous membranes was shown to reflect alterations in the etiological and nosological patterns of neonatal infectious and inflammatory diseases. Conclusion. Microbiological monitoring may yield an adequate microbial landscape of the department when regularly examining the nonsterile sites that are the most accessible to examinations and make up the most numerous microbiotas (feces and throat swabs). Monitoring the dynamics of the colonization of nonsterile sites can identify the forerunners of possible mass clinical cases of infections and prevent them.