Question

You are a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit, and your newest patient is a 32-week-old infant whose mother had flulike symptoms prior to delivery. The infant required supplemental oxygen for a few hours of life but soon was weaned off oxygen and tolerated her first feeding without difficulty. At 22 hours, you observe a drop in her heart rate, and despite resuscitation efforts, the infant dies. The next morning you receive a microbiology laboratory report that blood cultures drawn just before the infant's death are growing gram-positive rods. What is the most likely cause of the infant's infection?

Answer 1

The symptoms and microbiology report suggest a possible infection caused by Group B Streptococcus (GBS), a gram-positive bacterium. GBS is known to cause early-onset sepsis in newborns, especially if the mother had flulike symptoms before delivery. The drop in the infant's heart rate and subsequent demise are consistent with severe bacterial infection.