Bacterial causes of neonatal sepsis, prospective study in neonatal intensive care unit in central teaching hospital for children in baghdad

Neonatal sepsis categorized as early and late onset. Early onset sepsis (EOS) occurs in the first 7 days of life with 85% occurs in the first 24 hours of life. Late onset sepsis (LOS) occurs after the first week of life and is mostly acquired from care giving environment. The study was performed to determine the incidence of pathogenic agents, risk factors and outcome of septicemia in neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in central teaching hospital for children in Baghdad governorate. A prospective study was done among 200 neonates with clinical suspicion of neonatal sepsis who were admitted in neonatal intensive care unit of central teaching hospital for children in Baghdad governorate during 4 months from 20th of August 2011 to 20th of December 2011. The causative agents have been isolated by blood culture in 15% of the neonates, late onset sepsis is more common (71%) than early onset sepsis (29%) and the predominant isolates in both early and late onset diseases were Gram negative bacteria (76.6%). E. coli was the commonest organism in early and late onset sepsis (23.3%), Klebsiella was the 2nd commonest organism specially in the late onset sepsis (20%). Overall death rate was (28%), in the early onset was (42.55%) and (25.17%) was in the late onset disease. Pseudomonas aeroginosa and proteus have the highest fatality (100%), while no death was recorded among pneumococcal sepsis, E. aerogenes and Listeria.