Imagine you are the mother of a newborn baby. One day you notice your baby is not feeding well and is less alert than usual. You want to seek medical care, but you live in a rural village — an expensive six-hour journey away from the closest hospital. Even if you managed to find transport, you worry your baby might not survive the long journey. As your baby gets weaker, you feel more helpless.
This heartbreaking scenario is reality for hundreds of thousands of mothers and babies worldwide, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Serious infections, such as meningitis, sepsis, and pneumonia kill over 700,000 newborns every year. These infections are difficult to detect in small babies, so when newborns show signs of possible serious infection, they require urgent evaluation and treatment. In developing countries, this can be approximately 10 percent of all newborns.
If you live in the United States or other industrialized countries, your newborn will be admitted to the hospital and started on antibiotics given through an IV or injection. Doctors and nurses will monitor his progress carefully. The chance of your baby surviving is more than 99 percent.
About the author
Bina Valsangkar
Dr. Bina Valsangkar is a newborn technical adviser for the Saving Newborn Lives program at Save the Children. She works with health ministries and other partners in Malawi, Uganda, and Ethiopia to reduce neonatal mortality. Valsangkar completed her pediatrics residency at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., medical school at the University of Michigan, and a master’s in public health from Harvard University. She is adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at George Washington University.
