A Nosocomial Outbreak of Clinical Sepsis in a Neonatal Care Unit (NCU) in Port-Au-Prince Haiti, July 2014 – September 2015.

We describe the efforts taken by the hospital in response to the outbreak and the analysis of information results from the epidemiological and microbiological surveillance activities. Methods Setting CRUO is a container hospital (established soon after the earthquake in 2010) and is equipped with 162 beds, including 106 obstetrics beds and 56 for neonates. The hospital runs on city power when available and is otherwise fully supplied by external generators. Water supply is done by a private company who provide trucked water supply. All water is filtered and chlorinated on site of the hospital to render it potable. Neonatal care relies on phototherapy, incubators and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines for neonates with breathing difficulties. Prophylactic antibiotic therapy is administered to all admitted neonates considered to be at risk for sepsis, based on prematurity, low birth weight, chorioamnionitis, or other materno-fetal risk factors. Neonatal care does not rely on central or umbilical catheters and thus we refer to the unit as an NCU. Between July 2014 and September 2015, 7683 deliveries (mean=17 daily) occurred at CRUO with 3380 neonatal admissions to the NCU (mean admission time = 8 days). Half (53%) of admitted infants had a low birthweight (LBW) (< 2.5 kg) and 35% were premature (gestational age at birth < 37 weeks). Routine medical data collection until July 2014 did not give us the ability to determine historical incidence of sep...
Source: PLOS Currents Outbreaks - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Source Type: research