Experts from Johns Hopkins University, Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the College of Medicine University of Ibadan, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation shared new evidence published in The Lancet and The Lancet Global Health with the potential to save thousands of newborn lives with low cost, effective and commonly available antibiotics.
- Dr. Rebecca Cooney, North America Editor, Lancet
- Katie Taylor, Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Child and Maternal Health Coordinator, EPCMD, USAID
- Joy Riggs-Perla, Senior Director, Saving Newborn Lives Program, Save the Children
- Dr. Adejumoke Ayede, Senior Lecturer, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine University of Ibadan and Consultant Pediatrician, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
- Dr. Abdullah Baqui, Professor of International Health and Director of the International Center for Maternal and Newborn Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Dr. Mariam Claeson, Director, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Almost a quarter of the three million neonatal deaths annually are the result of severe infections like Sepsis – a fast progressing life-threatening illness in newborns that requires rapid treatment. Newborn sepsis can be difficult for families and even clinicians to recognize in newborns, who rapidly decline without timely and appropriate treatment. The study found that two alternative simplified regimens, which require either two or seven injections in addition to oral antibiotics given closer to home were just as effective as 14 injections in treating newborn infections. The regimens, studied in clinical settings in Africa and Asia where neonatal deaths remain stubbornly high, were found to be safe, simple and more accessible.
Read the Lancet Study
- Oral amoxicillin compared with injectable procaine benzylpenicillin plus gentamicin for treatment of neonates and young infants with fast breathing when referral is not possible: a randomised, open-label, equivalence trial
- Simplified antibiotic regimens compared with injectable procaine benzylpenicillin plus gentamicin for treatment of neonates and young infants with clinical signs of possible serious bacterial infection when referral is not possible: a randomised, open-label, equivalence trial
- Safety and efficacy of alternative antibiotic regimens compared with 7 day injectable procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin for outpatient treatment of neonates and young infants with clinical signs of severe infection when referral is not possible: a randomised, open-label, equivalence trial