Descriptive Study of Neonatal Sepsis Incidents: Evidence from the Pediatric Service of Herat Provincial Hospital during the Year 1403

Abstract

Background and Objective: Neonatal sepsis is a systemic infection that occurs during the first four weeks of life in infants and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality due to the immature and weak immune system dependent on age. Method: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of neonatal sepsis incidents, conducted retrospectively. It includes a total of 3,493 cases of sepsis in the pediatric service of Herat Provincial Hospital. The selection of infants diagnosed with sepsis was carried out using a census method. Data were collected in sequence from patient admission logs, patient case protocol registration, and HMIS reports from the pediatric service. The acquired data were subsequently analyzed using Excel and spss. Findings/ Result: In examining neonatal sepsis at Herat Provincial Hospital, 32% of the cases were found among infants aged 1 to 28 days, while 34% were in infants aged 29 days to 1 year. Contributing factors included prematurity (39.9%), low birth weight (35.0%), and chorioamnionitis (24.8%). The main complications recorded were systemic infections (23.8%) and respiratory failure (11.3%). Regarding disease severity, 25.4% of cases were categorized as mild sepsis, and 10% as severe sepsis. Additionally, the distribution by gender showed that 45% of the cases were male infants and 55% were female infants. Conclusion: The findings of this study on neonatal sepsis in Herat Provincial Hospital indicate a high burden of this disease and its related complications. Infants, particularly those under one month of age, are at significant risk. Contributing factors such as prematurity and low birth weight play a crucial role in the onset of sepsis. Major complications include systemic infections and respiratory failures.The chi-square test showed that the distribution of complications and disease severity groups was statistically significant.