Infectious Diseases and the Kidney in Children

The kidney is involved in a wide range of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic diseases. In most systemic infections, renal involvement is a minor component of the illness, but in some, renal failure may be the presenting feature and the major problem in management. Although individual infectious processes may have a predilection to involve the renal vasculature, glomeruli, interstitium, or collecting systems, a purely anatomic approach to the classification of infectious diseases affecting the kidney is rarely helpful because most infections may involve several different aspects of renal function. In this chapter, a microbiological classification of the organisms affecting the kidney is adopted. Although they are important causes of renal dysfunction in infectious diseases, urinary tract infections and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) are not discussed in detail because they are considered separately in chapters XX and XX, respectively.