PSBI community of practice

Making the Case

Infections including pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis are responsible for 21% of neonatal deaths annually and were responsible for over 550,000 out of 2.6 million neonatal deaths in 2016, nearly all of them occurring in developing countries[i].

The recommended treatment for these sick newborns is referral for hospital treatment with a seven to ten days course of multiple injectable antibiotics. However, experience has shown that most of these children are unable to receive appropriate treatment because the “gold standard” inpatient care is neither possible nor acceptable for many families in resource-poor settings.

In September 2015 WHO published a guideline for managing PSBI in sick young infants when referral is not feasible. The guideline recommends the use of antibiotics for newborns and young infants (0-59 days old) with PSBI in order to reduce mortality. It also provides clinical guidance on the use of safe and effective simplified antibiotic regimens for outpatient treatment of less severe infections and programmatic guidance on the role of community health workers and home visits in identifying signs of PSBI.

Few countries have yet to introduce this new guideline and none have implemented at scale. These early implementers have demonstrated that the implementation of the guideline where referral is not feasible has the potential to increase access to PSBI treatment. The experience so far also shows that implementation can contribute to the reduction of neonatal and young infant mortality, reduce inequity in access to care and provide an opportunity to improve home visits. An operational guide provides practical guidance on how to operationalize the guideline in a program setting as part of the overall newborn and child health strategy.

COUNTRY EXPERIENCE: USING A SIMPLIFIED REGIMEN TO MANAGE PSBI

Referring a sick infant with possible serious bacterial infection is not always feasible in resource-limited settings. The countries highlighted in dark blue are implementing the new simplified treatment protocol to manage PSBI.

Connecting

The PSBI online community of practice provides a virtual platform where people can exchange technical knowledge, share resources and experiences, ask and answer questions, and help to connect people who might not ordinarily interact. We host regular webinars on PSBI and an online exchange platform where you will have the opportunity to discuss with leading experts in the topic.

• Webinar: Join us for our next PSBI webinar on June 27 or see slides for previous webinars
• Online exchange: Join our PSBI community of practice

Resources

The links below lead to pages to help policy makers and program implementers identify strategies and approaches for increasing access to PSBI treatment using the new PSBI guidelines.

• Guidelines (French), WHO/UNICEF Statement (French) and Operational Guide
• Resources on the Healthy Newborn Network site