Potential Health and Cost Impacts of a Point-of-Care Test for Neonatal Sepsis and Possible Serious Bacterial Infections in Infants: A Modeling Analysis in Two Settings
A POCT for neonatal sepsis, even with moderate accuracy, could improve outcomes by accelerating diagnosis, supporting antibiotic stewardship, and lowering costs. High sensitivity is essential to minimize deaths from missed diagnoses and delayed antibiotic therapy. Our results suggest 85% sensitivity and 80% specificity for hospitalized neonates, and 90% sensitivity and 70% specificity in primary care settings are the minimum necessary technical requirements for the POCT.
Authors
- Gwendoline Chimhini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7280-3801)
- Cecilia Ferreyra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5480-7940)
- Shaukat Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7247-4190)
- Kyra H. Grantz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2319-5010)
- Megan A Hansen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0003-7179)
- Joshua M Chevalier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8873-6669)
- Veronicah Chuchu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4584-9708)
- Benjamin Blümel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3227-4941)
- Brooke E Nichols (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4682-4999)
- Ntombi Sigwebela
- Birgitta Gleeson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0791-7735)
- Felicity Fitzgerald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9594-3228)
Institutions
- Boston University (US)
- Women's University in Africa (ZW)
- FIND (CH)
- University of Zimbabwe (ZW)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (NL)
- Amsterdam University Medical Centers (NL)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Open Forum Infectious Diseases
- Published
- 2025-10-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofaf652
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Neonatal and Maternal Infections
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.88
Funders
- OPEC Fund for International Development