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An epidemiologic study on sudden unknown fever in intravenous therapy
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Sung Eun Lee, Kang Won Choi
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Korean J Epidemiol. 1987;9(2):217-227.
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Abstract
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Abstract
There was a sudden unknown fever related to IV therapy in a university Hospital from Aug. to Sep. 1986. This study tries to survey epidemiological feature of sudden fever and to investigate the cause of sudden fever.
The results were as follows;
1) There was 55 cases of unknown fever related to IV therapy. The incidence rate was 2 persons per 1,000 inpatients, 29.3 persons per 1,000 discharges, 2.1 persons per 1,000 IV fluids, 3.2 persons per 1,000 IV devices and 2.5 persons per 1,000 IV sets.
2) To confirm this episode as epidemic, follow-up study was done in 2 general surgery nursing units from Aug. to Sep. 1987, in which there had been 26 cases of unknown fever in 1986. There was no case of sudden fever in follow-up study.
3) The pattern of this sudden fever was chill (55 cases), fever over 38°C (45 cases), neurologic sign (4 cases) and gastro-intestinal sign (5 cases). In 26 cases (47.2%), the onset of the fever was within 1 hour after starting of IV therapy. And in 29 cases (52.7%), the fever was developed within 100 cc or less infusion.
4) To confirm the cause, microbiological culture and pyrogen test were done. In 12 microbiological cultures, there was one positive (the microorganism was S. epidermis) and in 25 pyrogen tests, one pyrogen test was found out positive.
5) To prevent such episode, active hospital infection control program is recommended in each hospital and a positive national supervision on medical equipments should be necessary.
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Summary
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