Prevalence of neonatal sepsis among infants receiving treatment at a tertiary health facility in Ekiti state, Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

With very low immunity of their own, neonatal sepsis remains a serious threat to the survival of neonates in the first few hours of life. In this retrospective study -which aimed at determining the prevalence of neonatal sepsis at a tertiary health facility in Ekiti State, South-West, Nigeria, data of 171 infants born and hospitalized at the said facility were retrieved and analyzed. Infants born and hospitalized at the facility on the suspicion of sepsis between 2013 and 2018 were captured in the study. The subjects comprised 91 males (53.2%) and 80 females (46.8%), totaling 171. The overall prevalence of neonatal sepsis among the subjects was 29.8%. Of the 12 subjects within the 1-5 hours age-bracket, one had a positive blood culture result, while the remaining 11 had negative culture; thus representing 8.3% positivity rate within that class. Respectively, 5, 4, 1, 4, 20, 5, 7, 2 and 2 had positive culture in the 6-13, 14—26, 27-38, 39-64, 65-192, 193-288, 289-432, 433-600 and 601-1128 hours age-brackets. There’s a positive association between the subjects’ age and the outcome of the blood culture, which implies that age is risk factor for early onset sepsis (EOS) and even late onset sepsis (LOS).