On behalf of the governing body of NNF, I wish you a very Happy and prosperous New Year. This issue of the journal of neonatology is dedicated to the theme ‘Neonatal Sepsis’, the commonest cause of mortality and morbidity in neonates. Despite advances in the diagnosis and management of neonatal disorders, sepsis is quite often difficult to diagnose, is over diagnosed and once treatment is initiated, it is continued without definitive evidence. Irrational use of antibiotics has led to emergence of multidrug resistant pathogens.The incidence of sepsis in NICUs in India is alarmingly high with significant contribution to mortality. As per NNPD 2002–03 estimates, 3% of intramural births in institutions had sepsis and 16% of all deaths were due to sepsis. Another interesting observation is that the gram-negative organisms are responsible for both early & late onset sepsis and many of these isolates are multidrug resistant. This could be due to our patient population, environmental conditions or maternal flora, but more research is required in this direction. Increasing use of mechanical ventilation, invasive procedure and parenteral nutrition in many neonatal units has also led to higher incidence of fungal infections.A battery of laboratory tests is available to rule out or confirm neonatal sepsis. However, no single test is definitive and blood culture still remains the gold standard. With newer technological advances in processing blood culture samples, not only the yield of organisms has improved but also the results are available early. Appropriately taken blood culture samples before initiating antibiotics are a reasonable tool for ruling out or confirming sepsis. Very often, because of non-availability of microbiological services or fear of low yield of blood cultures the samples are not drawn and the diagnosis is based on other presumptive clinical and laboratory parameters.This issue of the journal has an original article on the paper presented for gold medal during the annual convention of NNF. We request NNF members and others to send more original articles for publication. The NNF - NNPD group organized a meeting to discuss proposal for multicentric clinical trials in India and I am sure this initiative would lead the way for good clinical research in our country. The section on research methodology has an article on how to plan RCTs/clinical trials and the section on equipment update has an article on Laminar Flow System. Please visit NNF equipment website and send your feedbacks & suggestions.This issue in addition has NNF Fellowship guidelines and nomination form. Kindly nominate NNF members, who have made significant contributions towards field of neonatology and the forum for this prestigious fellowship.With best wishes</sec></body></article></article></body></html>

Journal of Neonatology

0973-21870973-2179

National Neonatology Forum

jn-20-1-editorial

EDITORIAL

Editorial

Saluja

Satish

E-mail: ssaluja@vsnl.com

1–32006

20133

On behalf of the governing body of NNF, I wish you a very Happy and prosperous New Year. This issue of the journal of neonatology is dedicated to the theme ‘Neonatal Sepsis’, the commonest cause of mortality and morbidity in neonates. Despite advances in the diagnosis and management of neonatal disorders, sepsis is quite often difficult to diagnose, is over diagnosed and once treatment is initiated, it is continued without definitive evidence. Irrational use of antibiotics has led to emergence of multidrug resistant pathogens.The incidence of sepsis in NICUs in India is alarmingly high with significant contribution to mortality. As per NNPD 2002–03 estimates, 3% of intramural births in institutions had sepsis and 16% of all deaths were due to sepsis. Another interesting observation is that the gram-negative organisms are responsible for both early & late onset sepsis and many of these isolates are multidrug resistant. This could be due to our patient population, environmental conditions or maternal flora, but more research is required in this direction. Increasing use of mechanical ventilation, invasive procedure and parenteral nutrition in many neonatal units has also led to higher incidence of fungal infections.A battery of laboratory tests is available to rule out or confirm neonatal sepsis. However, no single test is definitive and blood culture still remains the gold standard. With newer technological advances in processing blood culture samples, not only the yield of organisms has improved but also the results are available early. Appropriately taken blood culture samples before initiating antibiotics are a reasonable tool for ruling out or confirming sepsis. Very often, because of non-availability of microbiological services or fear of low yield of blood cultures the samples are not drawn and the diagnosis is based on other presumptive clinical and laboratory parameters.This issue of the journal has an original article on the paper presented for gold medal during the annual convention of NNF. We request NNF members and others to send more original articles for publication. The NNF - NNPD group organized a meeting to discuss proposal for multicentric clinical trials in India and I am sure this initiative would lead the way for good clinical research in our country. The section on research methodology has an article on how to plan RCTs/clinical trials and the section on equipment update has an article on Laminar Flow System. Please visit NNF equipment website and send your feedbacks & suggestions.This issue in addition has NNF Fellowship guidelines and nomination form. Kindly nominate NNF members, who have made significant contributions towards field of neonatology and the forum for this prestigious fellowship.With best wishes</sec></body></article></article></body></html>