Neonatal septicaemia in Calabar, Nigeria

A three-year survey of neonatal septicaemia (363 bacteriologically proven cases) in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, has demonstrated that the dominant blood isolate was Staphylococcus aureus (53%) followed by unclassified Coliforms (20%), an unexpected Chromobacterium violaceum (5%). The incidence of neonatal septicaemia was 54.9 per 1000 live births for inborn infants. The predominant organisms were largely susceptible to gentamicin, ceftriazone and cefuroxime with a mortality rate of 19% with most (60.9%) of the fatalities being due to Gram-negative organisms.