Background & Objective: Most of the acute poisonings are mild with no complication but in some rare cases they can be life threatening. About 70% of acute poisoning happens in children. More than 90% of these toxic exposures are incidental and easily preventable. The factors leading to acute poisoning are variable based on cultural and socioeconomic differences among the population. The increasing production and distribution of new drugs and chemicals change the etiologic factors. This study was conducted to investigate common acute poisonings and their victims in Tabriz.

 Methods: In this retrospective study 306 cases of acute poisoning were reviewed from April 1999 to March 2002, in Tabriz Pediatric Medical Center. The factors that were considered included: age, gender, manner (incidental versus intentional), agents route of intoxication, residential area (rural versus urban), duration of admission, clinical presentation, date of first admission and mortality.

 Results: 306 patients (53.3% male and 46.7% female) were studied in this research. Most of the cases (31%) were 1-2 years old, and the fewest (1.3%) were under 6 months of age. About 95% of the cases were incidental, and 5% intentional suicide attempts among children above 10 years of age. 63% of the subjects were living in Tabriz, 29.5% of them were from rural areas and the rest (7.5%) were dwelling small towns. Poisons in the order of prevalence included: drugs (45.5%), hydrocarbons (26%), organo phosphates (7%), atropinic material and datura intoxication (6%), Rodenticides (3.6%), Opiates (2.9%), Carbon monoxide (2.2%) and alcohol, mushrooms, animal bites, acids & alkalines (6.8%). Average duration of hospitalization was 2 days and the total mortality rate was 3 cases.

 Conclusions: The most common etiologic factor was drug poisoning followed by hydrocarbons as the second most prevalent factor in this regard. It seems that mass media especially TV programs can play a key role to increase the public knowledge about this issue.

  Background & Objectives: The conjunctiva is a mucus membrane that covers the internal surface of the eyelids and the external surface of the globe. Conjunctivitis comprises a variable group of infectious and non-infectious diseases. Bacterial conjunctivitis is a common type of ocular infections. The aim of this study was to determine the bacterial agents in conjunctivitis.

  Methods: This descriptive study was done on 148 patients with conjunctivitis who were hospitalized in pediatric hospital of Tabriz from March 2001 to February 2002 and had suppurative discharge. Suppurative discharge of the conjunctiva was sampled and cultured on suitable media. Antibiogram of the isolated strains was done using the disk diffusion method. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics.

  Results : The isolated organisms were in the following frequency: Pseudomonas aeroginosa (40), Staphylococcus aureus(26), Klebsiella pneumonia(20), coagulase negative Staphylococci spp(18), Enterobacter spp(12), E.coli(10), Seratia marcescens(6), Acintobacter spp(4), Beta-hemolytic streptococcus group A(4). These bacteria had varied degrees of resistance to ciprofloxacin (37%), Chloramphenicle (52%), Gentamycin (70%) and Co-trimoxazol (71%).

  Conclusion: In different studies the prevalence of conjuctivitis infection is reported to be 20-40% but we found 94.5%. Regarding the importance of bacterial conjuctivitis infection in hospital and the possibility of the transmission of resistant infection to the society, some measures shoud be taken to decrease these infections.

  Background & Objectives: Septicemia is one of the serious infections of neonatal period that its microbial etiologies bacterial causes are different in various parts of the world. Incidence of sepsis in developing countries is much more than that of developed countries and it is one of the important causes of mortality and morbidity in neonatal period. This study was done to determine the microbial etiology, mortality and resistance pattern of septicemia.

 Methods: This study was a retrospective cross-sectional study for three years on blood cultures of 210 neonate admitted in pediatric hospital in Tabriz. Demographic information, clinical findings, types of bacteria in blood culture and antibiogram were analyzed.

 Results: Mean age of patients was 8±2 days in which sixty percent were male and the rest were female. Among 12 isolated bacteria, negative staphylococcus coagulase was the most common. 68.6% of isolated bacteria were positive gram. 31.4% of negative gram were in which klebsiella pneumoniae had the most frequent incidence. 22.9% of neonates died, in which 9% of them weighed less than 1500 grams. Among 8 antibiotics used by disc diffusion method, ampicillin showed the highest (97.4%) and vancomycin the lowest (6.7%) resistance.

 Conclusion: septicemia is still the main problem in neonatal ward and neonatal intensive care unit. The etiologic agents and resistance pattern of each area should be considered in starting empirical treatment.