Infections in children's services centres

Key messages

Children in childcare centres, other children’s services centres and kindergartens are at particular risk of transmitting infectious diseases.
Several infectious diseases have been reported as being more common, or even epidemic, in children’s services centres.

Children in childcare centres, other children’s services centres and kindergartens are at particular risk of transmitting infectious diseases because of:

close contact with other children and staff
lack of previous exposure to common infections
lack of toilet training
lack of control of other body secretions
mouthing behaviour.

These risk factors may be increased when staff are not appropriately trained, group sizes are large and mixing of age groups occurs.

Infections with the following organisms have been shown to be more common in children’s services centres, or have been reported as epidemic:

respiratory syncytial virus
influenza virus
Haemophilus influenzae type b
Neisseria meningitidis
Shigella spp.
rotavirus
Giardia lamblia
cryptosporidium
hepatitis A
E. coli
Campylobacter spp.
parvovirus B19 (erythema infectiosum)
coxsackievirus group A (hand, food and mouth disease)
Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus (impetigo)
cytomegalovirus
scabies
head lice.

Reviewed 08 October 2015