The Incidence of Neonatal Pneumococcal Septicemia in Sweden 1991–92

The result of a national survey

Abstract

In a survey of the incidence of pneumococcal neonatal septicemia in Sweden 1991–92, to our knowledge the first nationwide survey of this kind, an incidence of 3.6/100 000 was found. Based on this, the relative incidence of neonatal septicemia caused by pneumococci was calculated to be 0.9–1.3%. Despite recent reports of pneumococci resistant to antibiotics, no resistant strain was found, and among the affected neonates, all treated with conventional antibiotics, there was a lower mortality as compared to prior reports. This might reflect the facts that the infants were less often born preterm, were less often born after premature rupture of membranes, and had a higher proportion with a late onset of symptoms than in earlier surveys.