[Neonatal septicemia: incidence and risk factors]

The cases of 131 newborns with positive blood cultures have been reviewed. These children were born in our hospital between 1985 and 1990. We found that the incidence of sepsis was 4.3/1000 newborns. Early neonatal sepsis was the most frequent, representing 58% of the cases. Late sepsis in hospitalized infants represented 1.34% of the cases. Streptococcus B was the microorganism most frequently isolated (26.7%), followed by S. epidermidis (19.8%), E. coli (13.7%) and S. aureus (10.68%). In over 50% of the cases of early sepsis, maternal-fetal risk factors were present. Mortality was 7.6%, with half of these cases due to Streptococcus B.