Background and Objective Paediatric infection diseases are the main health problems in third world countries. Drug resistance of pathogens is also one of the main problems. Therefore, the aim of the study was evaluation of the frequency of bacterial infections in children and the detection of antibiotic resistance patterns of bacteria in Hamedan during 2001–6.

Materials and Methods This study comprised 6391 children under 14 years of age, admitted at paediatric or neonatal wards from 2001 to 2006. All children that were diagnosed with meningitis, septicaemia, pneumonia, gastroenteritis and urinary infections were evaluated. Data including type of infection, culture, antibiogram and demographic features were recorded. The disc agar diffusion method was used to determine the isolated bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents.

Results From 6391 samples, 27.7% were positive cultures. 65.4% of isolated bacteria were Gram negative and 34.6% (613) were Gram positive. The most common infections were urinary infections (36.8%), gastroenteritis (34.9%), sepsis (17%), pneumonia (9.2%) and meningitis (2.1%). Isolated bacteria were Escherichia coli (36.3%), Staphylococcus aureus (18.2%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (13.3%), Klebsiella spp (10%), Enterobacter spp (6%), Shigella spp (3.9%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.8%). The most effective antibiotics on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative isolates were ceftriaxone, nitrofurantoin, cefepime, kanamycin and gentamicin.

Conclusion This study showed that the most common bacterial infections were urinary infections, gastroenteritis and sepsis. E coli and Klebsiella spp were the most common Gram-negative bacteria and S aureus was the most common Gram-positive bacteria, which were resistant to the wide spectrum antibiotics.