Neonatal sepsis is an infection of the blood which occurs in an infant younger than 90 days. Early-onset sepsis occurs within the first week of life. Late-onset sepsis happens after the age of 1 week to 3 months. Early-onset of neonatal sepsis occurs most commonly within 24 to 48 hours of birth. Before or after childbirth the baby gets the infection from the mom. After birth, babies with late-onset neonatal sepsis become infected.
The risk factors for early-onset bacterial sepsis are:
- Colonization of GBS during pregnancy.
- Preterm delivery.
- Water breakage (membrane rupture) more than 18 hours before birth.
- Placenta and amniotic fluid infection (chorioamnionitis).
The risk factors for risk of child sepsis after delivery:
- Using a catheter deep in a blood vessel.
- Staying in the hospital for a longer time.
Recent research has found that neonatal sepsis is responsible for almost a quarter of India’s newborn deaths, with most instances occurring within 3 days of birth. The study also found that a disturbing degree of antimicrobial resistance is identified on the infecting pathogens. The Delhi Neonatal Infection Study, published in Lancet Global Health is a retrospective systematic review of more than 88,000 live births reported at three tertiary care hospitals in New Delhi between July 2011 and February 2014, was published in The Lancet Global Health.
Of those 88,636 live births, 13,530 newborns participated in this study after being admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit ( NICU), and 1,934 were diagnosed with sepsis at the end. The rate of overall sepsis was 14.3 percent, and within 72 hours of birth, almost two-thirds of cases occurred. In 24 percent of enrolled newborns who died during the study, sepsis was the underlying cause of death.
Although most infection-related deaths occur during the neonatal era in low- and middle-income countries such as India, data on neonatal sepsis levels in these countries have been missing up to now. The authors suggest this lack of data has discouraged India’s public health authorities from identifying neonatal sepsis as an area of serious concern and taking steps to prevent it.
