True pathogen or contamination: Validation of blood cultures for the diagnosis of nosocomial infections in a developing country

Abstract

Background Blood culture results are frequently used to guide antibiotic decision-making, but culture contaminants need to be distinguished from true pathogens. Aims To assess the contamination rate of blood cultures and validate a method to distinguish between true bacteraemia and contamination. Methods We analysed blood culture results from children who were admitted to the paediatric ICU and paediatric wards at the Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia between December 2010 and February 2013. For each positive culture result, the type of isolated organism, time to positivity, and the number of positive culture sites were considered to classify the isolate as representing a true bactera..