The Lancet Microbe in conversation with
Aug 12, 2026 · 23 min · 10 segments
Phoebe Ashley-Norman talks with Luria Leslie Founou about neonatal sepsis in Cameroon and sub-Saharan Africa more broadly, in conversation around the Lancet Microbe Personal View "Neonatal sepsis in…
Luria Leslie FounouGuest
Phoebe Ashley NormanHost
So neonatal sepsis is a bloodstream infection that occurs within the 28 days of life.
So it's usually up between early onset neonatal sepsis that occurs within 72 hours, typically known to be acquired from birth or from mother's to the babies during the labor.
And you also have the late onset sepsis that occur after 72 hours and usually known to be transferred from the hospital environment and the health case workers and also the community of the babies itself.
So what is happening in Africa is that the burden of neonatal sepsis is quite huge.
It's the leading cause of mortality or the leading cause of preventable death in sub-Saharan Africa.
These are estimates from 2014 in terms of the cost of neonatal sepsis alone.
And when we look at the estimate across the child's birth, we can see that the neonatal population is the one that contain half of all the childhood actually.
So that means sepsis is a leading contributor to the neonatal mortality as a whole.
And there are some variability within the continent itself, even within country that we need to consider if you want to adequately contain it.
So neonatal sepsis is a bloodstream infection that occurs within the 28 days of life.
So it's usually up between early onset neonatal sepsis that occurs within 72 hours, typically known to be acquired from birth or from mother's to the babies during the labor.
And you also have the late onset sepsis that occur after 72 hours and usually known to be transferred from the hospital environment and the health case workers and also the community of the babies itself.
So what is happening in Africa is that the burden of neonatal sepsis is quite huge.
It's the leading cause of mortality or the leading cause of preventable death in sub-Saharan Africa.
These are estimates from 2014 in terms of the cost of neonatal sepsis alone.
And when we look at the estimate across the child's birth, we can see that the neonatal population is the one that contain half of all the childhood actually.
So that means sepsis is a leading contributor to the neonatal mortality as a whole.
And there are some variability within the continent itself, even within country that we need to consider if you want to adequately contain it.
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