Prevalence and risk factors for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales colonization in hospitalized children in a provincial hospital in Vietnam

CRE colonization was highly prevalent among pediatric inpatients in this provincial Vietnamese hospital, particularly among young children, those hospitalized for prolonged periods, and patients in intensive care or neonatal units. These findings underscore the urgent need to strengthen infection prevention and control (IPC) strategies and to implement targeted screening approaches to assess the effect on CRE transmission of improvement of IPC.