Question
My neighbor’s baby was just born 20 days ago and has contracted sepsis. What is sepsis, and is neonatal sepsis easy to treat? How long does it take for a newborn with sepsis to recover?
Answer
Neonatal sepsis is a severe infectious disease during the neonatal period, where pathogens enter the newborn’s bloodstream and grow, reproduce, and produce toxins, leading to a systemic inflammatory response. Neonatal sepsis often lacks typical clinical manifestations but progresses rapidly and is dangerous. It is recommended to seek medical treatment as soon as possible. Sepsis is blood poisoning, not a single disease. Sepsis is a disease caused by bacterial infections spreading in the blood, with ‘poisoning’ being caused by the bacteria causing the infection or by toxic substances called toxins produced by the bacteria. Acute sepsis can be fatal. Currently, 95% of infants can recover through medication. For white blood cell sepsis, more than 90% of patients can recover.