title: Classification of Blood Culture Isolates Into Contaminants and Pathogens on the Basis of Clinical and Laboratory Data.
abstract: The multisite community-based study, Aetiology of Neonatal Infection in South Asia (ANISA), uses blood culture as the gold standard for identifying the etiology of neonatal infection. Considering the importance of this age-old diagnostic tool and the risk of contamination, ANISA has employed rigorous measures to prevent contamination at all stages of blood collection, processing and culture. Because contamination may still occur, an independent expert group evaluates the routinely collected clinical and laboratory data to determine whether a blood culture isolate is a contaminant or a true pathogen. This article describes the methodology used by ANISA to determine whether a blood culture isolate is likely to be a true pathogen or a contaminant in neonatal sepsis.
authors.affiliation: From the *Child Health Research Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh; †Child and Adolescent Health Department, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; ‡Department of Global Health and Center for Global Health and Development, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; §Division of Global Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; ¶Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh; ‖Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan; **Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; and ††Streptococcus Laboratory, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Belal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hossain
authors.forename: Martin W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Davidson H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Hamer
authors.forename: Patricia L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Hibberd
authors.forename: A S M Nawshad Uddin
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Mahfuza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marzan
authors.forename: Maksuda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Nicholas E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Connor
authors.forename: Mohammad Shahidul
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Anita K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Zaidi
authors.forename: Abdullah H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Baqui
authors.forename: Zulfiqar A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Bhutta
authors.forename: Shahida M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Qureshi
authors.forename: Iftekhar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rafiqullah
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McGee
authors.forename: Samir K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Saha
mesh_terms: D001211:Asia, Western / Q000453:epidemiology; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000071997:Blood Culture / Q000379:methods*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D000071074:Neonatal Sepsis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*