Neonatal sepsis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Globally, neonatal sepsis accounts for 8% of all neonatal deaths in the first week of life and 37% of all deaths from the 2nd to 4th weeks of life. In hospital settings, the incidence of culture-proven neonatal sepsis is 16 per 1000 live births in India. A large study from a rural community in India reported 4 cases of culture-proven neonatal sepsis per 1000 live births.
Population-based studies from India report highly variable incidences of clinically suspected sepsis- ranging from 4.6 to 170 per 1000 live births. The diagnosis and management of neonatal sepsis is one of the commonest challenges faced by Pediatricians in day-to-day clinical practice. Conventionally, neonatal sepsis is classified according to the time of onset as EONS (onset at <72 hours of life) and LONS (onset ≥ 72 hours of life), although this…
