No abstract

A survey of blood culture-confirmed neonatal septicaemia was carried out in seven delivery hospitals in 1981-85, for a second successive five-year period. The total number of cases was 377, to compare with 410 in the previous five-year period. Group B streptococcus (GBS) was throughout the major pathogen (29%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (15%) and Escherichia coli (14%), while Staphylococcus epidermidis (10%) has emerged as a significant new causative agent. Septicaemia with very early onset was predominant: 49% of the cases had onset within the first 24 hours; in the majority the symptoms were present from birth. GBS was responsible for 49% of the cases detected in the first 24 hours of life. The overall mortality was 20% as compared to 23% in the previous five-year period, whereas in the very early onset septicaemia mortality was now 18%, down from the preceding 30%. Despite the modest progress, GBS septicaemia with very early onset remains a significant problem, and effective preventive measures are needed.

Sound spectrography was used to analyze 135 pain cries from 14 infants with a karyotype abnormality. At the time of the cry recording the children were from one day to seven months old, except for one child who was 2 years 10 months at the second recording. The cries were compared with 30 pain cries from 15 healthy infants of corresponding age. The children with an abnormality of chromosome 4 or 5 had cries with a significantly higher fundamental frequency than the control infants. Additionally, the cry in the "Cri-du-Chat" syndrome had a flat, monotonous melody type. The cries of infants with 13- or 18-trisomy were hoarse, low-pitched, with the shift parts absent. The cries in karyotype abnormalities were also different from pain cries of infants with other disorders involving the central nervous system. This study suggests that cry analysis can provide a valuable indication of the presence of a chromosome anomaly.