Hospital infections have been a hot topic for a few years now, and most hospitals have made strides toward cleaning up their microbial act. A recent story in Consumer Reports, however, presents a bad news goods news scenario about hospital-acquired infections in pediatric intensive care units.

Pediatric ICUs, the consumer group found, often have higher infection rates than ICUs for adults. The most threatening infections are delivered by catheters, tubes that provide nutrition, fluids and medication. If not inserted and managed under completely sterile conditions, they can spread infection throughout the body. In 2009, 1 in 4 of such infections were fatal.