Sepsis is an infection of the blood that usually affects the heart, brain and kidneys. It shows some symptoms like a drop in blood pressure, increased heart rate and fever. Healthcare professionals prescribe some antibiotics to treat newborn babies with sepsis. But these antibiotics can cause complications for babies, especially for premature ones as overuse of antibiotics can make them bacteria resistant. According to a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Gothenburg, healthcare professionals prescribe antibiotics to newborn babies even when they do not really need them.
In the study published in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers used data of almost 1 million babies who were born between 2012 and 2020. These babies were born after completing 34 or more weeks of pregnancy. When researchers observed the collected data, they found 647 cases of early-onset sepsis and 9 of them died. That is about 0.63 cases of sepsis for every 1000 babies each year. They also found that the number of sepsis cases dropped from 0.74 to 0.34 cases from 2012 to 2020.
In this study, researchers also found that healthcare professionals don’t prescribe too many antibiotics to newborns of 1 week. The number of sepsis cases went down but the amount of antibiotics prescribed did not change much.
Johan Gyllensvärd, one of the researchers says many newborn babies get antibiotics even though they don’t have sepsis. He further adds the amount of treatment given is too high as compared to the number of sepsis cases and deaths. He suggests that healthcare professionals should observe those newborn babies very carefully to find out who might be at risk for this infection even if they don’t show any symptoms. If the blood test of a baby shows no infection, they can stop the overuse of antibiotics.
As the results of this study show that overuse of antibiotics in newborns can be harmful, healthcare professionals should make some effective strategies to balance between treating sepsis and not prescribing too many antibiotics.
Reference Link:
Johan Gyllensvärd et al, Antibiotic Use in Late Preterm and Full-Term Newborns, JAMA Network Open (2024).
