Infectious Diseases
Infectious Diseases
The Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Mercy provides inpatient and outpatient care for newborns to young adults. Our experts in infectious diseases provide compassionate care, excellence in teaching, and investigations into clinical and laboratory research.
Infectious Diseases Programs
We have specialized clinics for international adoption medical evaluation, travel medicine, and penicillin allergy testing. Our Antimicrobial Stewardship Program is one of the first pediatric programs in the country.
Outpatient management and inpatient diagnostic evaluation and management is available at Children's Mercy Adele Hall Campus and Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas. This includes consultation service for both primary infectious diseases and immunocompromised host consultation services.
We are involved in a variety of research activities. We are a site for the CDC-funded New Vaccine Surveillance Network which performs surveillance for acute respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in hospitalized and non-hospitalized children in our community. Investigators also study the epidemiology of respiratory viruses and environmental interventions that can decrease these infections in schools. We participate in multi-site federally funded vaccine clinical trials and viral epidemiology studies. Team members are funded by the National Institutes of Health to support a program studying the pathophysiology of severe, unpredictable adverse drug reactions with a focus on reactions caused by antibiotics. Other research in the division includes the study of the molecular epidemiology and novel mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of neonatal E. coli invasive infections.
Health care providers with questions regarding vaccinations, outbreaks and alerts, infection control, diagnostic testing and laboratory interpretation can call (800) G0-MERCY and ask for consultation with an infectious diseases doctor.
Clinical Services
Our International Adoption Clinic provides pre- and post-adoption services to families adopting children from abroad. It is intended to augment the care provided by the child's primary health care provider. Services include both initial evaluations and initiation of treatment for infections.
When children or teens and their parents are planning to travel outside the country, visit the only travel clinic in the Kansas City region exclusively dedicated to their needs.
The pediatric specialists in the Division of Infectious Diseases are available for outpatient consultation upon request for children with a variety of known or suspected infections.
Our clinic offers expert evaluation and testing for children labeled with a penicillin or amoxicillin allergy. Most children can safely take penicillin after testing, ensuring they receive the most effective and targeted antibiotics when needed.
Our physicians typically follow up on a weekly basis with children who receive intravenous antibiotics at home.
Conditions
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Fever
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Chronic or recurrent infections
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Serious systemic infections
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Infections in the immunocompromised host
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Foreign body-related infections
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Post operative and hospital-acquired infections
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Pneumonia
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HIV infection
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Meningitis
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Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection
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Skin and soft tissue infections
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Lymphadenitis/lymphadenopathy
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Musculoskeletal infections
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Tick-borne infections
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Kawasaki disease
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Tuberculosis
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Intra-abdominal infection
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Cat Scratch Disease
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Gastrointestinal infection
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Recurrent MRSA skin infection
Brooke's Book
Despair to Hope: Disease Prevention Through Vaccines
by Mary Anne Jackson, MD, and Christopher Harrison, MD
Synopsis: Brooke was a seemingly healthy 28-year-old woman whose life was tragically cut short when she contracted meningococcal serogroup B disease. A vaccine protective against meningococcus serogroup B only became available in mid-2015 and may now be considered in healthy adolescents. It is approved for use in high-risk adolescents and adults and should soon be approved for younger children. Brooke's Dad was inspired to share her story, and we have included additional stories from other families regarding vaccine-preventable diseases.
This book tells the stories of individual children, teenagers, adults and families who experienced vaccine-preventable infections or other diseases that vaccines have not yet eliminated. Brooke’s Book celebrates successes of the past as we look to the future for more breakthroughs in vaccines. It highlights potential advances that will be made possible from ongoing scientific discovery and innovation in the field of vaccine research, many of them happening at Children’s Mercy.
Children’s Mercy offers this book to the community knowing parents need as much good information about vaccines as possible to make it easier for them to make the decision to immunize their children.
Brooke’s Book would not be possible without the generous donation of time and talent from Sarah Baum (copy development) and Laura Fitzgibbons (photography).
Stories
Time saves lives: Emersyn’s story
When every minute counts, a great partnership matters.
Baby Emersyn’s temperature spikes on a routine Saturday morning, prompting her community pediatrician to refer her straight to the Emergency Department at Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas. Using cutting-edge technology, the Infectious Diseases team rapidly diagnoses Emersyn with E. coli meningitis, which if not caught early, can have a devastating outcome.
The Link
The Link is a monthly newsletter that provides education to an audience of local, regional and national pediatric providers, on subjects related to current medical trends, developments in best practices and analysis of hot topics.
The free, award-winning publication is authored by Children's Mercy pediatric specialists, edited by Mary Anne Jackson, MD, and Angela Myers, MD, MPH, from the Division of Infectious Diseases, and produced by the Communications and Marketing Department.
You'll receive updates on:
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Medical news and trends
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Reviews of pediatric bioethics cases
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Discussion on challenging diagnoses