Bacteria in neonatal omphalitis.

A 6-year study of bacteria isolated from swabs taken from clinically apparent infections of the stump of the umbilical cord showed an overall infection rate of 0.7% (200/27,107), with a preponderance of Gram-negative organisms as compared with Gram-positive organisms (171/118), an excess which was statistically significant. When the data were broken down into premature and non-premature nurseries, the incidence of infection in the former was 2.08% (84/4028) and in the later 0.5% (116/23,079), a highly significant statistical difference. Most of the organisms isolated from the premature nurseries were Gram negative (83/120) and this finding too was statistically highly significant.