Seven neonatal intensive care units across Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda have begun a two-year surveillance programme to monitor neonatal sepsis and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The programme, which runs until mid-2027, is part of the SNIP-AFRICA project and aims to strengthen evidence on infection rates, the pathogens that cause sepsis, treatment outcomes and resistance patterns in low-resource hospital settings. With AMR rising globally, and especially in low-resource settings, understanding how resistant bacteria affect newborns is particularly important, as ineffective antibiotics can quickly lead to severe complications in this vulnerable group.
Surveillance, which is the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data, is essential for identifying, tracking and responding to disease. For neonatal sepsis, surveillance helps measure how often infections occur, identify the pathogens most commonly responsible, track antibiotic resistance patterns needed for effective treatment, and detect outbreaks early so they can be contained quickly. Strengthening surveillance in neonatal units ultimately supports better care and safer antibiotic use.
The SNIP-AFRICA surveillance programme will focus on hospitalised newborns with suspected or confirmed sepsis. Teams will collect clinical information alongside laboratory data to track bloodstream infections, resistance patterns, and antibiotic use. They will identify the bacteria most commonly linked to infections and assess how they respond to antibiotics.
This surveillance activity will provide new evidence on neonatal infections in African hospitals. Findings from the programme will guide infection prevention strategies, antibiotic stewardship, and inform clinical trials like NeoSep1, helping reduce the burden of neonatal sepsis and AMR-related deaths across the continent.
