ABSTRACT
Neonatal sepsis remains one of the most common and
potentially preventable causes of mortality and long-term
morbidity in the world. A recent study by the Neonatal
Research Network of the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (NICHD) demonstrated that
compared with uninfected infants, those who develop
infections in the neonatal period were significantly more
likely to have adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes at
follow-up. These include cerebral palsy, poor vision, delayed
psychomotor development, low Bayley Scales of Infant
Development II scores on the mental development index, as
well as impaired head growth, a known predictor of poor
neurodevelopmental outcome.1 Similarly, a four-fold increase
in the incidence of cerebral palsy was reported in a British
cohort,2 and poor neurodevelopmental outcomes were noted
in a large American cohort3 following neonatal infections.
