Effect of an integrated neonatal care kit on neonatal health outcomes: a cluster randomised controlled trial in rural Pakistan

Prevention and Treatment of Neonatal Infections in Facility and Community Settings of Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Descriptive Review

INTRODUCTION

We present a robust and up-to-date synthesis of evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to prevent and treat newborn infections in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Newborn infection prevention interventions included strategies to reduce antimicrobial resistance (AMR), prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), clean birth kits (CBKs), chlorhexidine cleansing, topical emollients, and probiotic and synbiotic supplementation. Interventions to treat suspected neonatal infections included prophylactic systemic antifungal agents and community-based antibiotic delivery for possible serious bacterial infections (PSBIs).

METHODS

A descriptive review combining different methodological approaches was conducted. To provide the most suitable recommendations for real-world implementation, our analyses considered the impact of these interventions within three distinct health settings: facility, mixed, and community.

RESULTS

In facility settings, the strongest evidence supported the implementation of multimodal stewardship interventions for AMR reduction and device-associated infection prevention bundles for HAI prevention. Emollients in preterm newborns reduced the risk of invasive infection compared to routine skin care. Probiotics in preterm newborns reduced neonatal mortality, invasive infection, and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) risks compared to standard care or placebo. There was insufficient evidence for synbiotics and prophylactic systemic antifungals in LMICs. In mixed settings, CBKs reduced neonatal mortality risk compared to standard care. In community settings, chlorhexidine umbilical cord cleansing reduced omphalitis risk compared to dry cord care. For the treatment of PSBIs, purely domiciliary-based antibiotic delivery reduced the risk of all-cause neonatal mortality when compared to the standard hospital referral.

CONCLUSION

Strategies for preventing HAIs and reducing AMR in healthcare facilities should be multimodal, and strategy selection should consider the feasibility of integration within existing newborn care programs. Probiotics are effective for facility-based use in preterm newborns; however, the establishment of high-quality, cost-effective mass production of standardized formulations is needed. Chlorhexidine cord cleansing is effective in community settings to prevent omphalitis in contexts where unhygienic cord applications are prevalent. Community-based antibiotic delivery of simplified regimens for PSBIs is a safe alternative when hospital-based care in LMICs is not possible or is declined by parents. More randomized trial evidence is needed to establish the effectiveness of CBKs, emollients, synbiotics, and prophylactic systemic antifungals in LMICs.

The spectrum of acute illness and mortality of children and adolescents presenting to emergency services in Sanghar district hospital, Pakistan: a prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To describe presenting diagnoses and rates and causes of death by age category and sex among children with acute illness brought to a district headquarter hospital in Pakistan.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Sanghar district headquarter hospital, Sindh, Pakistan between December 2019 and April 2020 and August 2020 and December 2020.

PARTICIPANTS

3850 children 0-14 years presenting with acute illness to the emergency and outpatient departments and 1286 children admitted to the inpatient department.

OUTCOME MEASURES

The primary outcome was Global Burden of Disease diagnosis category. Secondary outcomes were 28-day mortality rate, cause of death and healthcare delays, defined as delay in care-seeking, delay in reaching the healthcare facility and delay in appropriate treatment.

RESULTS

Communicable diseases were the most common presenting diagnoses among outpatients and among inpatients aged 1 month to 9 years. Non-communicable diseases and nutritional disorders were more common with increasing age. Few children presented with injuries. Newborn period (age <28 days) was associated with increased odds of death (OR 4.34 [95% CI 2.38 to 8.18], p<0.001, reference age 28 days-14 years) and there was no significant difference in odds of death between female vs male children (OR 1.12, 95% CI 0.6 to 2.04, p=0.72). 47 children died in the hospital (3.6%) and three (0.2%) died within 28 days of admission. Most children who died were <28 days old (n=32/50, 64%); leading diagnoses included neonatal sepsis/meningitis (n=13/50, 26%), neonatal encephalopathy (n=7/50, 14%) and lower respiratory tract infections (n=6/50, 12%). Delays in care-seeking (n=15) and in receiving appropriate treatment (n=12) were common.

CONCLUSION

This study adds to sparse literature surrounding the epidemiology of disease and hospital outcomes for children with acute illness seeking healthcare in rural Pakistan and, in particular, among children aged 5-14 years. Further studies should include public and private hospitals within a single region to comprehensively describe patterns of care-seeking and interfacility transfer in district health systems.

Neonatal bacterial sepsis

Neonatal sepsis remains one of the key challenges of neonatal medicine, and together with preterm birth, causes almost 50% of all deaths globally for children younger than 5 years. Compared with advances achieved for other serious neonatal and early childhood conditions globally, progress in reducing neonatal sepsis has been much slower, especially in low-resource settings that have the highest burden of neonatal sepsis morbidity and mortality. By contrast to sepsis in older patients, there is no universally accepted neonatal sepsis definition. This poses substantial challenges in clinical practice, research, and health-care management, and has direct practical implications, such as diagnostic inconsistency, heterogeneous data collection and surveillance, and inappropriate treatment, health-resource allocation, and education. As the clinical manifestation of neonatal sepsis is frequently non-specific and the current diagnostic standard blood culture has performance limitations, new improved diagnostic techniques are required to guide appropriate and warranted antimicrobial treatment. Although antimicrobial therapy and supportive care continue as principal components of neonatal sepsis therapy, refining basic neonatal care to prevent sepsis through education and quality improvement initiatives remains paramount.

An integrated newborn care kit (iNCK) to save newborn lives and improve health outcomes in Gilgit Baltistan (GB), Pakistan: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Ongoing high neonatal mortality rates (NMRs) represent a global challenge. In 2021, of the 5 million deaths reported worldwide for children under five years of age, 47% were newborns. Pakistan has one of the five highest national NMRs in the world, with an estimated 39 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births. Reducing newborn deaths requires sustainable, evidence-based, and cost-effective interventions that can be integrated within existing community healthcare infrastructure across regions with high NMR.

METHODS

This pragmatic, community-based, parallel-arm, open-label, cluster randomized controlled trial aims to estimate the effect of Lady Health Workers (LHWs) providing an integrated newborn care kit (iNCK) with educational instructions to pregnant women in their third trimester, compared to the local standard of care in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, on neonatal mortality and other newborn and maternal health outcomes. The iNCK contains a clean birth kit, 4% chlorhexidine topical gel, sunflower oil emollient, a ThermoSpot™ temperature monitoring sticker, a fleece blanket, a click-to-heat reusable warmer, three 200 μg misoprostol tablets, and a pictorial instruction guide and diary. LHWs are also provided with a handheld scale to weigh the newborn. The primary study outcome is neonatal mortality, defined as a newborn death in the first 28 days of life.

DISCUSSION

This study will generate policy-relevant knowledge on the effectiveness of integrating evidence-based maternal and newborn interventions and delivering them directly to pregnant women via existing community health infrastructure, for reducing neonatal mortality and morbidity, in a remote, mountainous area with a high NMR.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

NCT04798833, March 15, 2021.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of implementing an integrated neonatal care kit to reduce neonatal infection in rural Pakistan

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of distribution of the integrated neonatal care kit (iNCK) by community health workers from the healthcare payer perspective in Rahimyar Khan, Pakistan.

SETTING

Rahimyar Khan, Pakistan.

PARTICIPANTS

N/A.

INTERVENTION

Cost-utility analysis using a Markov model based on cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT: NCT02130856) data and a literature review. We compared distribution of the iNCK to pregnant mothers to local standard of care and followed infants over a lifetime horizon.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

The primary outcome was incremental net monetary benefit (INMB, at a cost-effectiveness threshold of US$15.50), discounted at 3%. Secondary outcomes were life years, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and costs.

RESULTS

At a cost-effectiveness threshold of US$15.50, distribution of the iNCK resulted in lower expected DALYs (28.7 vs 29.6 years) at lower expected cost (US$52.50 vs 55.20), translating to an INMB of US$10.22 per iNCK distributed. These results were sensitive to the baseline risk of infection, cost of the iNCK and the estimated effect of the iNCK on the relative risk of infection. At relative risks of infection below 0.79 and iNCK costs below US$25.90, the iNCK remained cost-effective compared with current local standard of care.

CONCLUSION

The distribution of the iNCK dominated the current local standard of care (ie, the iNCK is less costly and more effective than current care standards). Most of the cost-effectiveness of the iNCK was attributable to a reduction in neonatal infection.

Components of clean delivery kits and newborn mortality in the Zambia Chlorhexidine Application Trial (ZamCAT): An observational study

BACKGROUND

Neonatal infection, a leading cause of neonatal death in low- and middle-income countries, is often caused by pathogens acquired during childbirth. Clean delivery kits (CDKs) have shown efficacy in reducing infection-related perinatal and neonatal mortality. However, there remain gaps in our current knowledge, including the effect of individual components, the timeline of protection, and the benefit of CDKs in home and facility deliveries.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

A post hoc secondary analysis was performed using nonrandomized data from the Zambia Chlorhexidine Application Trial (ZamCAT), a community-based, cluster-randomized controlled trial of chlorhexidine umbilical cord care in Southern Province of Zambia from February 2011 to January 2013. CDKs, containing soap, gloves, cord clamps, plastic sheet, razor blade, matches, and candle, were provided to all pregnant women. Field monitors made a home-based visit to each participant 4 days postpartum, during which CDK use and newborn outcomes were ascertained. Logistic regression was used to study the association between different CDK components and neonatal mortality rate (NMR). Of 38,579 deliveries recorded during the study, 36,996 newborns were analyzed after excluding stillbirths and those with missing information. Gloves, cord clamps, and plastic sheets were the most frequently used CDK item combination in both home and facility deliveries. Each of the 7 CDK components was associated with lower NMR in users versus nonusers. Adjusted logistic regression showed that use of gloves (odds ratio [OR] 0.33, 95% CI 0.24-0.46), cord clamp (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.38-0.68), plastic sheet (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.34-0.63), and razor blade (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.53-0.89) were associated with lower risk of newborn mortality. Use of gloves and cord clamp were associated with reduced risk of immediate newborn death (<24 hours). Reduction in risk of early newborn death (1-6 days) was associated with use of gloves, cord clamps, plastic sheets, and razor blades. In examining perinatal mortality (stillbirth plus neonatal death in the first 7 days of life), similar patterns were observed. There was no significant reduction in risk of late newborn mortality (7-28 days) with CDK use. Study limitations included potential recall bias of CDK use and inability to establish causality, as this was a secondary observational study.

CONCLUSIONS

CDK use was associated with reductions in early newborn mortality at both home and facility deliveries, especially when certain kit components were used. While causality could not be established in this nonrandomized secondary analysis, given these beneficial associations, scaling up the use of CDKs in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa may improve neonatal outcomes.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Name of trial: Zambia Chlorhexidine Application Trial (ZamCAT) Name of registry: Clinicaltrials.gov Trial number: NCT01241318.

Effect of an integrated neonatal care kit on cause-specific neonatal mortality in rural Pakistan

Background

In 2018, Pakistan had the world’s highest neonatal mortality rate. Within Pakistan, most neonatal deaths occur in rural areas where access to health facilities is limited, and robust vital registration systems are lacking. To improve newborn survival, there is a need to better understand the causes of neonatal death in high burden settings and engage caregivers in the promotion of newborn health.

Objective

To describe the causes of neonatal death in a rural area in Pakistan and to estimate the effect of an integrated neonatal care kit (iNCK) on cause-specific neonatal mortality.

Methods

We analyzed data from a community-based, cluster-randomized controlled trial of 5286 neonates in Rahim Yar Khan (RYK), Punjab, Pakistan between April 2014 and August 2015. In intervention clusters, Lady Health Workers (LHW) delivered the iNCK and education on its use to pregnant women while control clusters received the local standard of care. The iNCK included interventions to prevent and identify signs of infection, identify low birthweight (LBW), and identify and manage hypothermia. Verbal autopsies were attempted for all deaths. The primary outcome was cause-specific neonatal mortality.

Results

Verbal autopsies were conducted for 84 (57%) of the 147 reported neonatal deaths. The leading causes of death were infection (44%), intrapartum-related complications (26%) and prematurity/LBW (20%). There were no significant differences in neonatal mortality due to prematurity/LBW (RR 0.43; 95% CI 0.15–1.24), infection (RR 1.10; 95% CI 0.58–2.10) or intrapartum-related complications (RR 1.04; 95% CI 0.0.45–2.41) among neonates who died in the intervention arm compared to those who died in the control arm.

Conclusion

The major causes of neonatal deaths in RYK, Pakistan mirror the global landscape of neonatal deaths. The iNCK did not significantly reduce any cause-specific neonatal mortality.