Klebsiella and Acinetobacter dominated infection-related newborn deaths in African and south Asian post-mortem study

The edition in brief

The CHAMPS network used minimally invasive tissue sampling on 2,609 neonatal deaths in six African countries and Bangladesh from 2016 to 2023. Infection lay somewhere in the causal chain in 44%, and Gram-negative bacteria in 74% of those: Klebsiella pneumoniae in 42% and Acinetobacter baumannii in 26%. The panel judged over 80% of infection-related deaths avertable with current or improved facility care, and the authors call for review of empirical antibiotics for severe neonatal infection. The study was published in May 2026. A meta-analysis of 32 trials found adding Lactobacillus to H. pylori eradication raised success (RR 1.10, NNT 13) and reduced adverse events (RR 0.70), with the eradication gain seen only with triple therapy. A 110-patient randomised trial in Thailand found high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine gave more people with HIV protective antibody levels to all four strains than standard dose (61.5% vs 39.2%), without more adverse events. A 50-woman pilot of the probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 for recurrent urinary infection showed fewer recurrences (16.7% vs 42.3%) that did not reach significance.