Infectious Disease

Our infectious diseases consultation service provides assistance in the diagnosis of complex infections and assistance in the selection, dosage and monitoring of antibiotics, antivirals and other forms of therapy. Our outpatient Infectious Disease Clinic cares for children referred by healthcare providers for a wide variety of infectious disease problems. The clinic works closely with Seattle Children’s home care services to support patients on home IV antimicrobial therapy. A specialized clinic focusing on viral illnesses provides treatment for difficult viral infections such as herpes and cytomegalovirus as well as for exposure to and management of HIV or AIDS. We recently started a clinic to help with the management of patients with recurrent infections caused by methicillin-resistant staph.

Children’s infection control program is one of the best in the United States in preventing the spread of infections in the hospital. Our physicians provide one of the largest telephone information consultation services for the hospital, serving community physicians in the WWAMI region.

Our research programs investigate the natural history of infections in children, the specific traits of microbes that infect humans and the molecules that help microorganisms establish infections such as pneumonia and bloodstream and brain infections. The section has developed new programs to understand how infections result in premature birth or infection of the fetus. We also investigate the immune mechanisms that thwart infection by human pathogens. These studies include basic science experimentation at the molecular and cellular level and the use of relevant models of human infections. Results from this research are used to identify new drugs for treatment and new vaccines for prevention. Clinical studies investigate how microbes cause disease in childhood and evaluate the effectiveness of new vaccines aimed at preventing infections in children. Clinical studies also test the efficacy of new drugs that may treat and improve the outcomes from severe infections and those in children with immune-related problems from chemotherapy and transplantation.