Published last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the analysis of newborns diagnosed with sepsis in seven LMICs across Africa and South Asia found extremely high rates of resistance to ampicillin and gentamicin, the combination therapy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for empiric treatment of neonatal sepsis. The study also found that children treated with a different combination therapy—ceftazidime and amikacin—had lower death rates.

"Our data have immediate implications at every level of health care and suggest that WHO might need to revise their antibiotic guidelines for neonatal sepsis within LMICs, where antibiotic resistance to currently recommended treatments is extremely high," the study authors wrote.