Paediatric intensive care in Harare

SUMMARY

A review of 1 year's experience in the paediatric intensive care unit in Harare is presented. Two hundred and eighty-six children were admitted and 66.4% survived. The major conditions for which the children were admitted were respiratory tract infections, surgical conditions, sepsis, tetanus, the Guillain Barré syndrome and acute renal failure. Sixty-nine per cent of the children lived within 50 km of the city of Harare and 31% came from more distant parts of the country. The problems of paediatric intensive care in Third World countries are discussed and we conclude that there is justification for such a facility in Zimbabwe.