Hello,
I am doing research to see what technologies exist to rapidly identify the correct antibiotic in the case of neonatal sepsis (faster than blood culture and antibiotic sensitivity testing). Would anyone be able to help me understand what technologies exist?
To give you some more background, NICUs in India (like much of the rest of developing world) receive a large proportion of neonates with septic infections. The majority of these infections are caused by CONS, Klebsiella, E. Coli, Psuedomnias. Typically a physician will
1) Start a blood culture,
2) Give a first line antibiotics
3) Wait for morphology and then sensitivity results 2-5 days later.
4) Change the antibiotic if the culture results suggest to, or if the baby hasn't responded within a reasonable time (regardless of culture results and their availability).
Is there any promising technology that could shortcut the sensitivity testing to identify
1) what is the correct antibiotic to give for this infection
2) or similarly, that the antibiotic being given (i.e. first line or second line antibiotics) will NOT be effective and so they should try something else?
I would really appreciate if anyone could point me to some promising technologies (even if in the research phase, and even if only specific to one type of bacteria or one type of antibiotics). For example, perhaps there is research around the mechanism of action of a specific antibiotic, and there is a way to rapidly detect if the cellwall/enzymes/DNA in the whole blood will allow for that mechanism to occur.
I apologize in advance as I am new to the microbiology field which is why I reached out to this expert forum. Please email me if you need more clarification or would like to discuss offline.
Thanks in advance!
Ratul
