Bacterial pathogens and antimicrobial resistance patterns in infections associated with stillbirths and under-five deaths in Ethiopia: a post-mortem surveillance study.

Authors

Fentabil Getnet, Dadi Marami, Shikur Mohammed, Yenework Acham, Alemnesh H Mirkuzie, Awoke Misganaw, Yimam Getaneh, Esrael Solomon, Dagne Bodena, Fami Ahmed, Daniel Demissie, Mulu Berihun, Zelalem Teklemariam, Lola Madrid, Joe O Oundo, Lulu M Muhe, Nega Assefa

Published in

BMC infectious diseases. Jul 06, 2026. Epub Jul 06, 2026.

Abstract

Bacterial infections remain major contributors to stillbirth, neonatal, and under-five mortality, particularly in low-resource settings where antimicrobial resistance (AMR) increasingly threatens the management of severe infections. Despite the growing burden of AMR in Ethiopia, data on bacterial pathogens and resistance patterns contributing to child mortality remain limited. This study aimed to characterize bacterial pathogens and antimicrobial resistance patterns among isolates obtained from stillbirths and under-five deaths in Ethiopia.
We analyzed microbiological data from two post-mortem surveillance studies conducted in Ethiopia: the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) and the Study of Illness in Preterm (SIP). CHAMPS investigated the causes of death in 416 stillbirths and children under five years of age between 2019 and 2022, while SIP examined 1,109 preterm neonatal deaths from five hospitals between 2016 and 2018. In both studies, bacterial pathogens were identified through culture of blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples-collected post-mortem in CHAMPS and ante-mortem in SIP. A total of 535 bacterial isolates were identified (302 from CHAMPS and 233 from SIP), of which 371 underwent antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Descriptive statistics were performed using Stata 16/MP 16.1 to summarize bacterial pathogen distribution and patterns of antimicrobial resistance.
Among the 302 isolates identified from stillbirths and under-five deaths in the CHAMPS study, Klebsiella pneumoniae accounted for 44.0% of isolates, followed by vaccine-preventable pathogens (Streptococcus pneumoniae, H. influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis) and Escherichia coli with 15.5% and 12.9%, respectively. In the SIP study, Klebsiella pneumoniae was also the predominant pathogen (29.2%) in preterm neonatal deaths followed by Staphylococcus aureus (17.6%). Group B Streptococcus comprised 2.1% of all isolates. Klebsiella pneumoniae exhibited high levels of resistance (≥ 75%) to commonly used antimicrobials, while lower resistance levels were observed for Amikacin and Ciprofloxacin. Among 110K. pneumoniae isolates tested, 83.6% were susceptible to Amikacin and 67.8% to Ciprofloxacin.
Klebsiella pneumonia is the predominant bacterial pathogen identified among stillbirths and under-five deaths in Ethiopian healthcare settings, with high levels of resistance to commonly used first-line antimicrobials. These findings highlight the need to strengthen infection prevention measures, AMR surveillance, and revision of empirical treatment protocols and antimicrobial stewardship to improve management of severe pediatric bacterial infections.

PMID:
42410519
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.