Klebsiella pneumoniae in neonatal sepsis: a 3-year-study in the pediatric hospital of Tabriz, Iran.

Neonatal sepsis is a life-threatening emergency, and any delay in treatment may cause death. Because of the importance of the problem in Iran, the aim of this retrospective study was to determine the etiological agents of neonatal septicemia, and the prevalence and epidemiology of Klebsiella bacteremia in the neonatal wards. Two hundred and ten cases of neonatal sepsis occurred during the study period. The most common organism was coagulase-negative staphylococci. Gram-negative organisms were isolated in 66 cases (31.43%), and the most common Gram-negative organism causing neonatal sepsis was Klebsiella pneumoniae. The mortality rate due to Gram-negative bacteria including K. pneumoniae was higher than that due to other bacteria. The distribution of the main pathogens is different in the Azerbaijan state, northwest of Iran, and K. pneumoniae is predominant, but Streptococcus agalactiae plays a relatively minor role in the etiology of sepsis during the first month of life.