Early-onset neonatal sepsis in a Chinese maternal and child healthcare centre, 2017-2023

Wang, Weilin; Wang, Zhenhui; Wang, Linghua; Li, Suping; Liu, Jiangling; Huang, Yaqin; Liu, Jun; Zhu, Chun; Zhang, Juan; Li, Cairong; Yang, Chunjia; Chen, Qiong; Wang, Wenqin; Deng, Shulin; Du, Yiming

doi:10.3389/fped.2025.1521908

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.

Sec. Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1521908

This article is part of the Research Topic Antibiotic Resistance in Sepsis - Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment View all articles

Early-onset neonatal sepsis in a Chinese maternal and child healthcare centre, 2017-2023

Provisionally accepted

Weilin Wang ^1*

Zhenhui Wang ²

Linghua Wang ¹

Suping Li ¹

Jiangling Liu ¹

Yaqin Huang ¹ Jun Liu

Jun Liu ³

Chun Zhu ²

Juan Zhang ¹

Cairong Li ¹

Chunjia Yang ¹

Qiong Chen ¹

Wenqin Wang ¹

Shulin Deng ¹

Yiming Du ¹

¹ Department of Neonatology, Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Changsha, China
² Department of Obstetrics, Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Changsha, China
³ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Changsha, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Early-onset sepsis (EOS) remains an important issue in neonatal units. Characteristics of EOS from China have not been fully revealed yet. Our aim is to investigate epidemiology, microbiology and clinical feature of EOS in a Chinese maternal and child healthcare centre.This is a retrospective observational study of EOS infants born in or admitted to Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2023.During the study period, there were 131 neonatal infections. The incidence of EOS was 1.12 (95% CI 0.94 to 1.33) per 1000 live births or 3.85 (95% CI 3.22 to 4.56) per 1000 admissions. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) (n=43, 32.3%), group B Streptococcus (GBS) (n=24, 18.0%) and Escherichia coli (n=18, 13.5%) were the predominant pathogens. GBS screening test was performed before delivery in 77.7% mothers of all infants with EOS, and 12.9% of screening results were positive. Among the main pathogens causing EOS, 86% of CoNS strains were resistant to penicillin, while all GBS strains were susceptible to penicillin.We report a high burden of EOS among infants in the maternal and child healthcare centre from China. CoNS was the most frequent pathogen causing EOS. Longitudinal epidemiologic surveillance is required to improve empiric antibiotic treatment of EOS.

Keywords: Early-onset sepsis, Incidence, antimicrobial resistance, surveillance, pathogens

Received: 03 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Wang, Wang, Li, Liu, Huang, Liu, Zhu, Zhang, Li, Yang, Chen, Wang, Deng and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Weilin Wang, Department of Neonatology, Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Changsha, China

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