Surveillance for incidence and etiology of early-onset neonatal sepsis in Soweto, South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Globally, over 400,000 neonatal deaths in 2015 were attributed to sepsis, however, the incidence and etiologies of these infections are largely unknown in low-middle income countries. We aimed to determine incidence and etiology of community-acquired early-onset (<72 hours age) sepsis (EOS) using culture and molecular diagnostics.

Methods

This was a prospective observational study, in which we conducted a surveillance for pathogens using a combination of blood culture and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based test. Blood culture was performed on all neonates with suspected EOS. Among the subset fulfilling criteria for protocol-defined EOS, blood and nasopharyngeal (NP) respiratory swabs were tested by quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase PCR using a Taqm

SUBMITTER: Velaphi SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6457488 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature