[Neonatal pneumococcal septicemia]

We report two cases of neonatal pneumococcal septicemia, including one fatal case in a 32-week-gestational-age premature infant. Neonatal pneumococcal septicemias account for less than 1% of all neonatal infections. Diagnosis is provided by simple and rapid methods for identifying pneumococci. Clinical features have little specificity (respiratory distress) and resemble those found in B streptococcus infections. The mother rarely exhibits symptoms at delivery. The severity of the prognosis is not related to resistance to the antimicrobial agents currently used in neonatal infections but to the infectivity of the organism itself and to the specific immunologic characteristics of premature neonates. The current use of amoxicillin and aminoglycosides in neonatal infections does not therefore need to be revised.