Abstract
Background: Neonatal sepsis is one of the main sources of morbidity and mortality in term and preterm
infants. Bacterial infections are the causes of the vast majority of neonatal sepsis. Cronobacter sakazakii has
been emerged as foodborne human pathogen and a causative agent for life-threatening bacterial infection
in infants.
Objective: To investigate the incidence and risk factors associated with C. sakazakii infection in a sample
of Iraqi neonates using molecular methods.
Methods: Venous blood was obtained from 100 neonates 1 days to 30 day-old who were admitted to ALImamain
Al-Kadhumain Medical City, Baghdad/Iraq. After DNA was extracted from leukocytes, specific
oligonucleotide primers for C. sakazakii were used in conventional PCR to amplify 282bp in internal
transcribed spacer (ITS) between small and large subunit of ribosomal RNA gene. Association of different
risk factors with the infection was determined by logistic regression test.
Results: Molecular methods for detection C. sakazakii revealed positive amplification in 16 samples (16%).
Regarding prenatal risk factors results showed, six children (37.5%) positive for this bacterium had home
delivery compared to only 15.47% of those who were negative. Among postnatal factors, only feeding
method had a significant association with C. sakazakii infections where 68.75% of positive cases had
received powdered infant formula (PIF) compared to 39.28% of negative cases who received such formula.
Interestingly, 12 children (75%) who were positive for C. sakazakii have died compared with 18 (21.43%)
among those who were negative for this bacterium.
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October 2018, Vol. 9, No. 10
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