Background: Early neonatal sepsis (EOS) is the second leading cause of death in the first week of life. Epidemiology differs in developed and developing countries.
Aim: To describe the epidemiology of EOS among newborn patients in a public hospital in western Mexico.
Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed in newborns of Nuevo Hospital Civil de Guadalajara "Dr. Juan I Menchaca". EOS was diagnosed with blood cultures or cultures of cerebrospinal fluid within the first 72 h of life. We analyzed risk factors (RF) by multivariate analysis with logistic regression.
Results: We identified an EOS incidence of 4.7 events per 1,000 live births. Seventy two percent of the isolated bacteria were gram negative bacilli. Factors associated with EOS were maternal age≤15 years (OR 3.50; 95% CI 1.56-7.85), rupture of membranes>18 h (OR 2.65; 95% CI 1.18-5.92), maternal fever (OR 6.04; 95% CI 1.54-23.6), birth weight≤2,500 g (OR 4.82; 95% CI 2.38-9.75) and gestational age<37 weeks (OR 3.14; 95% CI 1.58-6.22).
Conclusions: In addition to the RF known for EOS an independent association was observed with maternal age≤15 years.