title: The newborn at risk for serious infections.
abstract: Early discharge of suitable newborns is rapidly becoming a hospital standard. One concern is that truncated hospital observation of the infant during the first days of life, even with home visits or early clinical appointments, would allow early signs of a serious infection to go unnoticed, which could lead to a missed chance for early therapy and could imperil the child's favorable recovery. An analysis of available data for early onset neonatal bacterial sepsis and neonatal herpes virus infection shows that this new practice should not unduly place newborns at risk of treatable infections, however, so long as conventional risk factors are appreciated and reasonable, nationally sanctioned discharge criteria are followed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Lovelace Health System, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Radetsky
mesh_terms: D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay; D012307:Risk Factors; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy