Early-Onset Neonatal Sepsis: A Continuing Problem in Need of Novel Prevention Strategies

Early-onset neonatal sepsis (EOS) remains a feared cause of severe illness and death among infants of all birthweights and gestational ages, with particular impact among preterm infants. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigators have studied the changing epidemiology of invasive EOS for several decades. The Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs) network, a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health departments, and universities, was established in 1995 to address emerging infectious diseases of public health importance, including infections due to major neonatal pathogens.^1,2 ABCs data are remarkable because of the geographic distribution and size of the population-based network, laboratory-based identification of cases, linked epidemiologic and laboratory data, and surveillance over many years. In this issue of Pediatrics, Schrag and colleagues³ present ABCs data on the epidemiology of early-onset neonatal sepsis collected over a recent 10-year period, with special attention to group...