Abstract:
Background; - Neonatal sepsis is the presence of at least two abnormal clinical symptoms and at least two
deranged laboratory signs in the presence of or as a result of suspected or proven infection. It’s a major
global killer, accounts for up to one third of neonatal deaths an estimated 3 million neonatal cases and
between 500,000 and 900,000 neonatal deaths per year worldwide.Little is known about treatment outcomes
of neonatal sepsis in eastern part of ethiopia in general, Harar in particular. There-fore this study was try to
address this information gap.
Objective; - To assess Treatment outcome of neonatal sepsis and associated factors among neonates
admitted to neonatal intensive care unit of Hiwot -Fana Specialized University Hospital, from
September11,2018 – September 10,2021 Eastern Ethiopia, July 1,2022– July 30,2022
Method and Materials; - Institution basedcross-sectional study was conducted on 482 neonates admitted to
neonatal intensive care unit of Hiwot-Fana specialized university hospital with sepsis. Simple random
sampling (lottery) method was used to select charts. Data was collected with check list by reviewing patient
charts. The collected data were entered into Epidata version 4.6 and exported to Statistical Package for
Social Science (SPSS) version20.0 for analysis.Bivariate and multivariablelogistic regression with odds
ratios along with the 95% confidence interval was computed and interpreted accordingly. A P-value <0.05
was declared as statistically significant.
Result;among the total 482 neonates 72.4% neonates had good and 27.6% had poor treatment outcome.
Regarding with types of onset of sepsis majority of them 79.3% had early onset neonatal sepsis. Eighty
seven percent of neonates received gentamycin and ampicillin combination.Factors associated with
treatment outcome were, ANC visit during pregnancy(AOR; 2.45, 95% CI: 1.079 – 5.598), maternal
risk/history of infection (AOR; 0.29 95% CI: (0.174 – 0.503), birth weight<2500 gram (AOR: 2.11 95%
CI: (1.093 – 4.099), presence of comorbidity (AOR; 0.24 95% CI: (0.134 – 0.444), short length of
antibiotics administration (AOR; 0.109 95% CI: (0.028 – 0.418) and formula feeding (AOR; 1.94 95% CI:
(1.058 – 3.581).
Conclusion;magnitude of poor treatment outcome of neonatal sepsis in study area was high. Antenatal care
during pregnancy and birth weight ≥2500 gram were protective factors.Presence of maternal risk/history of
infection, presence of comorbidity, short length of antibiotics administration and formula feeding was risk
factors poor treatment outcome, increasing antenatal care service utilization, exclusive breast feeding
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practice, screening mothers for infections are some of recommended interventions to reduce poor treatment
outcome.