Author(s)

Jesus Reyna-Figueroa, Diana PerezPeña-Rosas, Patricia Galindo-Delgado, Ana Elena Limon-Rojas, Vicente Madrid-Marina

Central South Hospital from Petroleos Mexicanos.
Program in Public Health Sciences, National Institute of Public Health.

Background: Patients with cancer constitute a special group where immunization programs are often interrupted to begin treatment with chemotherapy. Sepsis is one of the main complications in this group. Methods: A hospital-based case-control study matched by age was carried out among subjects ≤ 9 years of age with cancer diagnosis. Children with cancer without sepsis and children with surgical pathology were included as controls; children with sepsis were included as cases. A bivariate logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated to nosocomial sepsis, and odds ratios were calculated with 95% confidence intervals. The percentage of attributable risk was calculated for the variables included in the final model. Results: Nineteen children with cancer and sepsis and 83 controls were included. Twelve (44%) caseshad an incomplete vaccination schedule according to their age. The association force between incomplete schedule and sepsis was 10.1 (95% CI, 3 - 36; p < 0.05). Conclusions: Approximately, 20% to 65% of the cases of serious nosocomial infection can be associated to an incomplete vaccination schedule. Strategies should be implemented to improve the general pediatric population’s vaccination status before a serious disease, such as cancer or another chronic condition preventing the application of vaccines, develops.

Vaccines; Cancer; Pediatrics; Immunocompromise; Association

J. Reyna-Figueroa, D. PerezPeña-Rosas, P. Galindo-Delgado, A. Limon-Rojas and V. Madrid-Marina, "Association between an Incomplete Vaccination Schedule and Nosocomial Sepsis among Children with Cancer," World Journal of Vaccines, Vol. 3 No. 1, 2013, pp. 10-15. doi: 10.4236/wjv.2013.31002.