Infections remain a leading cause of death among African newborns. More than 75% of these deaths are either preventable or fully treatable.
Prematurity is an important underlying reason for a newborn acquiring infections , especially Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs). Other risks regarding infections in hospitalised newborns include:
- The overreliance on antimicrobial adminsitration;
- Poorly maintained, unsterilised medical devices; and
- Unnecessary invasive procedures.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a crisis for neonatal sepsis treatment, as it drives up death rates by making antibiotic treatments ineffective.
Reducing neonatal deaths from infection requires focused implementation research to inform:
- The optimised detection, treatment, and prevention of infections and outbreaks, including enhanced Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR); and
- The improved measuring of infection and AMR that includes intervention coverage, treatment effectiveness, and newborn outcomes.
What does the neonatal infections workstream do?
The PANSAA neonatal infections workstream addresses practical implementation gaps, including how to:
- Assemble neonatal infection researchers and clinicians working across Africa to provide collaborative mentorship opportunities for Early Career Researchers (ECRs).
- Close the infection gap. NEST360 has previously identified a big gap between antibiotic use (60 to 97%) and low blood culture use (0.55 to 22%) for admitted newborns despite studied hospitals having microbiological labs.
- Develop evidence for detecting and managing infection outbreaks in LMIC neonatal units.
By doing this, we aim to improve the quality of Small and Sick Newborn Care and newborn survival on neonatal wards through better-implemented infection detection, treatment, and prevention.
Our expected neonatal infection outcomes
We aim to deliver:
