Early-onset newborn sepsis

Technical summary

Review abstract (Clinical Microbiology Reviews 2014; PubMed abstract only) plus the MedlinePlus sepsis page, which is about sepsis in general, not newborns; it lists children younger than one among those more likely to develop it. The review says maternal intrapartum antimicrobial prophylaxis has substantially reduced group B streptococcus disease but has been associated with more Gram-negative infections, especially in very-low-birth-weight infants; that diagnosis rests on clinical presentation, nonspecific markers (C-reactive protein and procalcitonin where available), blood cultures and molecular methods; and that empirical treatment should follow local resistance patterns but typically uses ampicillin and gentamicin, or ampicillin and cefotaxime if meningitis is suspected, until the cause is found. The risk calculator page covers one risk-based approach for infants born at 35 weeks or later.