To Study Incidence and clinical outcomes of culture positive sepsis in a Level III NICU – a ambispective observational study

Sepsis is one of the three most common causes of neonatal deaths globally. Most infection-related deaths in the neonatal period occur in low-income and middle-income countries due to poor hygiene and suboptimal practices for infection control. A significant proportion of these deaths are caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens.Despite the massive burden, few high-quality data about neonatal sepsis are available from these countries.The currently available multisite studies on sepsis are from well-established surveillance networks in high income countries such as the USA, the UK,  and Germany . Such infection surveillance networks are a rarity in low-income and middle-income countries; the few available ones have used passive surveillance ( the National Neonatal Perinatal Database [NNPD] and the Asia-Pacific Neonatal Infections Study [APNIS]. Most of the other studies from low-income and middle-income countries are typically from a single site, retrospective, or have relied on routine laboratory reports.  They often lack rigorous data collection and reporting methods, and run the risk of misclassification and underestimation or overestimation of the incidence of sepsis.  The paucity of high-quality data has undermined the recognition of neonatal sepsis as an area of serious concern in public health, the implementation of measures aimed at improvement of health-systems, and investments in research and innovation in low-income and middle-income countries