Mortality rates on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the
University Teaching Hospital are exceedingly high, with over 400 deaths
per 1000 admissions. Despite the availability of broad spectrum
antibiotics many infants appear to die from blood stream or respiratory
infections. We hypothesise that congenital or perinatal infections with
pathogens which do not respond to the available antibiotics are
responsible.The TORCH complex is made up of eight pathogens (6 viral, 1
bacterial, and 1 protozoal) which are known to be a significant cause of
morbidity and mortality when transmitted from the mother to the
neonate, either
in-utero or perinatally.
These neonatal infections have been little studied in Zambia, where much
attention has been on reducing the rates of
mother-to-child-transmission of HIV. We are conducting a prospective
observational study with the followiing objectives:
- To determine the prevalence of the TORCH complex infections
- To evaluate the clinical presentation and short term outcomes of the TORCH complex infections
- To evaluate the long term effects of TORCH complex infection on mental and physical development