Study finds serious bacterial infections on the rise in newborns
Posted July 15, 2021 5:29 pm.
Last Updated July 15, 2021 6:43 pm.
MONTREAL (CityNews) – The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre (MCH-MUCH) has found a spike of serious bacterial infections (SIB) in newborns and young infants, in a study conducted through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study also shows the number of emergency hospital visits for infants up to three-months-old decreased by two-thirds, despite SIBs doubling for the age group.
“The spike in serious bacterial infections that we observed during the pandemic is concerning. With fewer viruses circulating because of public health measures, fever is now more often a sign of a serious bacterial infection,” says the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Brett Burstein, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the MCH and a Junior Investigator in the Child Health and Human Development Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), in a statement.
“About two per cent of all full-term babies are evaluated for fever in the first few months of life, and there exists significant ongoing variation in their management,” he explains. “These babies often have few other symptoms and doctors want to avoid unnecessary invasive tests, antibiotics and hospitalization.”
The study also noted life-threatening invasive bacterial infections (IBIs) tripled in proportion during the same period.
The MCH said in a statement, “a common reason for an emergency room visit, a fever with no obvious source in an infant under three months of age is always of great concern. Young infants are vulnerable to infection because their immune systems are not sufficiently developed. They get most of their protection from maternal antibodies because they have low antibody production themselves. Even if the illnesses causing the fever are benign and resolve without treatment in the majority of cases, statistics from the past 30 years indicate that SBIs are usually detected in about 10 per cent of them.”
“It is critical that physicians exercise caution and investigate appropriately, and that parents seek care for infants with fever, during the pandemic even more than before,” added Dr. Burstein.
“So long as public health mitigation strategies continue, fever may be our only clue and now more likely these are the infections we are looking for.”
For more on Dr. Burstein and his team’s study visit their website.
-With files from Melina Giubilaro
