2023-07-01 19:45:00
Thousands of newborns in Switzerland are treated with antibiotics unnecessarily every year. Now a team of neonatologists wants to reduce this number – not an easy task.
Newborns have an immature immune system and are particularly susceptible to sepsis.
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As soon as they see the light of day, they receive antibiotics. In an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 newborns every year, infectious blood poisoning is to be prevented, which is around 3 percent of all births. Sepsis, as it is called in technical jargon, is caused in 90 percent of newborns by bacterial pathogens such as group B streptococci or Escherichia coli and is feared because it can lead to organ failure at breakneck speed. About one to two percent of affected babies die from it. “Newborns and young infants with their immature immune systems are the group most at risk,” says Martin Stocker, a children’s intensive care physician and neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital of the Cantonal Hospital in Lucerne.
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