Community management of neonatal infections

Simplified Treatment of Possible Severe Bacterial Infection in Young Infants When Referral Is Not Feasible. What Happened There? What Are the Implications Here?

Severe bacterial infections remain one of the 3 leading causes of newborn death worldwide. Most such deaths could be prevented with timely and appropriate antibiotic treatment. However, in low-income countries, there are many such cases for which, practically speaking, it is not currently feasible to offer gold-standard, inpatient treatment with 7 days of parenteral antibiotics. Recent trial results, however, provide evidence for efficacy using simpler outpatient antibiotic regimens, equivalent to treatment with 7 days of procaine penicillin and gentamicin, given on an outpatient basis. Based on these findings, the World Health Organization has recently released guidelines endorsing such an approach for cases for which referral for inpatient treatment is not feasible. This brief report looks beyond the measured effect sizes in the published trials to other details on how they were implemented and what outcomes were observed for different groups of study participants. The report considers, further, the circumstances in country settings where such a strategy may be appropriate and offers issues for consideration by policy makers.

Pharmacocinétique et pharmacodynamie des antibiotiques : est-ce différent en néonatologie ?

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) data on antimicrobial agents enable physicians to optimize their use in clinical practice. Neonates exhibit a large inter-individual variability in antibiotic levels due to immaturity and maturational changes in the first weeks of life. This variability explains the large therapeutic margins needed to ensure an optimal efficacy of antibiotics. These pharmacokinetic characteristics have to be taken into account when treating neonatal sepsis, along with pharmacodynamics targets for each antibiotic and notably minimal inhibitory concentration for usual causes of neonatal bacterial infections (group B streptococcus and Escherichia coli). This paper presents PK/PD data of antimicrobial agents mainly used in neonatology (ß-lactamines and aminoglycosides) to help physicians to rationalize their use of antibiotics.

Neonatal and Perinatal Infections

Lack of success in achieving considerable reductions in neonatal mortality is a contributory factor in failing to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4.2.6 million neonates still die each year, with preterm birth and infections the two leading causes. Maternal infections and environmental and infant factors influence acquisition of viral and bacterial infections in the perinatal and neonatal period. Scaling up evidence-based interventions addressing maternal risk factors and underlying causes could reduce neonatal infections by 84%. The emergence of new infections and increasing antimicrobial resistance present public health challenges that must be addressed to achieve substantial reductions in neonatal mortality.

Simplified antibiotic regimens for treatment of clinical severe infection in the outpatient setting when referral is not possible for young infants in Pakistan (Simplified Antibiotic Therapy Trial [SATT]): a randomised, open-label, equivalence trial

BACKGROUND

Parenteral antibiotic therapy for young infants (aged 0-59 days) with suspected sepsis is sometimes not available or feasible in countries with high neonatal mortality. Outpatient treatment could save lives in such settings. We aimed to assess the equivalence of two simplified antibiotic regimens, comprising fewer injections and oral rather than parenteral administration, compared with a reference treatment for young infants with clinical severe infection.

METHODS

We undertook the Simplified Antibiotic Therapy Trial (SATT), a three-arm, randomised, open-label, equivalence trial in five communities in Karachi, Pakistan. We enrolled young infants (aged 0-59 days) who either presented at a primary health-care clinic or were identified by a community health worker with signs of clinical severe infection. We included infants who were not critically ill and whose family refused admission. We randomly assigned infants to either intramuscular procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin once a day for 7 days (reference); oral amoxicillin twice daily and intramuscular gentamicin once a day for 7 days; or intramuscular procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin once a day for 2 days followed by oral amoxicillin twice daily for 5 days. The primary outcome was treatment failure within 7 days of enrolment and the primary analysis was per protocol. We judged experimental treatments as efficacious as the reference if the upper bound of the 95% CI for the difference in treatment failure was less than 5·0. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01027429.

FINDINGS

Between Jan 1, 2010, and Dec 26, 2013, 2780 infants were deemed eligible for the trial, of whom 2453 (88%) were enrolled. Because of inadequate clinical follow-up or treatment adherence, 2251 infants were included in the per-protocol analysis. 820 infants (747 per protocol) were assigned the reference treatment of procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin, 816 (751 per protocol) were allocated amoxicillin and gentamicin, and 817 (753 per protocol) were assigned procaine benzylpenicillin, gentamicin, and amoxicillin. Treatment failure within 7 days of enrolment was reported in 90 (12%) infants who received procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin (reference), 76 (10%) of those given amoxicillin and gentamicin (risk difference with reference -1·9, 95% CI -5·1 to 1·3), and 99 (13%) of those treated with procaine benzylpenicillin, gentamicin, and amoxicillin (risk difference with reference 1·1, -2·3 to 4·5).

INTERPRETATION

Two simplified antibiotic regimens requiring fewer injections are equivalent to a reference treatment for young infants with signs of clinical severe infection but without signs of critical illness. The use of these simplified regimens has the potential to increase access to treatment for sick young infants who cannot be referred to hospital.

FUNDING

The Saving Newborn Lives initiative of Save the Children, through support from the Bill & Melinda Gates, and by WHO and USAID.

Risk of gentamicin toxicity in neonates treated for possible severe bacterial infection in low- and middle-income countries: Systematic Review

OBJECTIVES

To assess the risk of gentamicin toxicity and potential number of neonates exposed annually to this risk, through treatment with WHO-recommended first-line antibiotics (gentamicin with penicillin) for the 6.9 million neonates with possible serious bacterial infection (PSBI).

METHODS

Systematic literature review and assessment of the evidence using Cochrane and GRADE criteria. Meta-analysis was undertaken for pooled estimates where appropriate.

RESULTS

Eleven studies (946 neonates) were included (nine randomised controlled trials and two prospective cohort studies). Six trials reported consistently measured ototoxicity outcomes in neonates treated with gentamicin, and the pooled estimate for hearing loss was 3% (95% CI 0-7%). Nephrotoxicity could not be assessed due to variation in case definitions used. Estimates of the number of neonates potentially affected by gentamicin toxicity were not undertaken due to insufficient data.

CONCLUSION

Given wider scale-up of outpatient-based and lower-level treatment of PSBI, improved data are essential to better assess the risks from neonatal gentamicin treatment without assessment of blood levels, to maximise benefit and reduce harm.