NEW YORK, Mar 07 (Reuters Health) - Children undergoing an organ transplant are less likely to come down with an infection in the hospital if staff strictly adhere to a procedure in which they frequently wash their hands or isolate the surgical gowns and gloves worn near the children, researchers report.

Children who undergo transplants must take immune system-suppressing drugs that help prevent organ rejection, but these drugs also increase their risk of infection, according to the report published in the February issue of Critical Care Medicine.

"We were concerned about infection rates in immunosuppressed children because usually these high-risk children are excluded from studies," Margaret Slota of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told Reuters Health.

Slota and colleagues randomly assigned 98 children who had undergone transplantation to be treated by staff workers who either had a strict gown and glove isolation policy or a strict handwashing policy.

The infection rate among the transplant patients was significantly reduced in both the handwashing group and the gown and glove group, compared with the infection rate before the study, the authors report.

Staff workers complied with the strict procedures about 82% of the time in the gown and glove group, and 76% of the time in the handwashing group, the report indicates.

"When you focus on reducing infections you can have a positive effect, but when you stop, that positive effect tends to go away, so you need to periodically reinforce handwashing or gown and glove isolation procedures among the...staff," Slota told Reuters Health.

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