Critical Bacterial Infection Rate Found in South African Newborns

A six-year study has found that newborn mortality rates remain high despite efforts to reduce deaths in children aged younger than 5 years. Additionally, 42% of deaths were found to occur in the sub-Saharan Africa region with infections found to be the leading cause of these deaths.

The study, which has been noted as the first national population-level analysis of invasive newborn infections in the local public health sector and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, analysed samples of blood and cerebrospinal fluid culture pathology reports from newborn babies at 256 public-sector hospitals. It found that the majority of infections occurred 3 days after birth and that many were caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria. The findings suggest these to have occurred in hospitals specifically.