There were no cases of ‘definite’ sepsis from the 54 blood cultures processed.
Three positive cultures were considered contaminants, with low virulence organisms cultured (gram positive bacillus resembling a diphtheroid, a Micrococcus species and a Staphylococcus hominis) and without supportive laboratory evidence of sepsis.
Fortythree (80%) infants evaluated did not have sepsis.
Eleven infants were classified as having clinical sepsis based on the criteria and definitions outlined previously (Table 1).
Based on a source denominator of 944 infants, the rate of clinical sepsis was 1.1% (11/944) and for those evaluated was 20% (11/54). Three of the eleven women whose infants were later diagnosed with clinical sepsis had complications during pregnancy including gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. The GBS carriage status was negative in nine women and unknown in two, both of whom had clinical chorioamnionitis treated with intrapartum antibiotics. Placental histopathology was performed in three cases and placental swabs cultured from two of these.
Ureaplasma urealyticum was isolated from one and the culture