Infection in the newborn infant.

This article is a review of the immunological peculiarities of the newborn infant and the incidence, clinical features, treatment, epidemiology and prophylaxis of neonatal infections. Infective disorders are very common in the first month of life and are the principal cause of morbidity and mortality after the first few days. In the first few days after birth obstetrical factors are the chief cause of morbidity and mortality, and infections are uncommon since there has not been time for most of them to cause illness. Infective disorders are more amenable to preventive measures than any other cause of morbidity in the neonatal period,' and the efforts being made to reduce their incidence are yielding very encouraging results, particularly in maternity hospitals and infants' institutions where the risk of contracting infections is so much greater than in the home. Since the unduly high neonatal mortality rate can most easily be reduced by measures which will curtail the incidence of infections in the newborn, a better and more general understanding of the epidemiology and clinical features of such infections is of prime importance.