- Email: [email protected]
Fetal and neonatal infection
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 14 (2009) 181
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/siny
Editorial
Fetal and neonatal infection
Great efforts are made to optimize the care of pregnant women and to protect fetuses and newborn infants from acquiring vertically transmitted infections. Progress in the field makes continuous updating of the information to physicians, midwives and parents important. The field of perinatal infections is, however, diverse with wide variation in the spectrum between different regions of the world. It’s obvious that all pathogens and aspects of this field cannot be covered. The now presented issue may be seen as an independent follow-up of Congenital and Opportunistic infections published in Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine in May 2007, and the reviews represent overviews of some important organisms responsible for perinatal morbidity and mortality. The authors are all experts in their fields. They represent various disciplines such as neonatologists, pediatricians, obstetricians, infectious disease specialists and microbiologists, and illustrate different aspects of the topic. Several important infections e.g. HIV, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and CMV were addressed in the previous issue and we hereby continue the exposure of relevant pathogens e.g. Herpes Simplex and Varicella causing severe disease and sequeale in neonates and Parvovirus B19 responsible for fetal anemia and stillbirth. Enteroviruses, Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis are of interest due to a main association with perinatal morbidity, mortality and neonatal disease. The wide field of bacterial infections in preterm and term infants is not covered in detail but is represented by Listeria monocytogenes, always relevant as a differential diagnosis to infection by Group B Streptococci. Bacterial vaginosis and its role in adverse pregnancy outcome and preterm delivery is discussed. The global expanding problem of neonatal exposure to the combination of maternal HIV and tuberculosis is addressed from a developing country perspective, but is of great interest for physicians in high income countries as well. The importance of Tuberculosis has dramatically increased during the recent years
1744-165X/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.siny.2009.03.001
according to co-infection with HIV and emerging multi-resistant strains. Prevention strategies by vaccination are, when possible, most wanted. Such a strategy is illustrated by Varicella Zooster. Childhood vaccination is of interest as it will result in an overall incidence reduction reducing the risk for exposure of a pregnant woman. But on the other hand there is risk for an increase in susceptibility against varicella among adults with a potential risk for a shift in the age distribution of varicella towards higher age. Such a change might have importance for the occurrence of varicella during pregnancy. A variety of organisms have been associated with stillbirth. Some of these organisms are presented in separate chapters, but we found it to be of interest to address stillbirth in a separate review. We thank the authors for sharing their expert knowledge and hope the readers will enjoy their contributions. Hopefully this issue will provide new knowledge, facilitate patient care and stimulate further research. Lars Nave´r* Department of Neonatolology, Division of Pediatrics, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] Marianne Forsgren Department of Clinical Virology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Karin Pettersson Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/siny
Editorial
Fetal and neonatal infection
Great efforts are made to optimize the care of pregnant women and to protect fetuses and newborn infants from acquiring vertically transmitted infections. Progress in the field makes continuous updating of the information to physicians, midwives and parents important. The field of perinatal infections is, however, diverse with wide variation in the spectrum between different regions of the world. It’s obvious that all pathogens and aspects of this field cannot be covered. The now presented issue may be seen as an independent follow-up of Congenital and Opportunistic infections published in Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine in May 2007, and the reviews represent overviews of some important organisms responsible for perinatal morbidity and mortality. The authors are all experts in their fields. They represent various disciplines such as neonatologists, pediatricians, obstetricians, infectious disease specialists and microbiologists, and illustrate different aspects of the topic. Several important infections e.g. HIV, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and CMV were addressed in the previous issue and we hereby continue the exposure of relevant pathogens e.g. Herpes Simplex and Varicella causing severe disease and sequeale in neonates and Parvovirus B19 responsible for fetal anemia and stillbirth. Enteroviruses, Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis are of interest due to a main association with perinatal morbidity, mortality and neonatal disease. The wide field of bacterial infections in preterm and term infants is not covered in detail but is represented by Listeria monocytogenes, always relevant as a differential diagnosis to infection by Group B Streptococci. Bacterial vaginosis and its role in adverse pregnancy outcome and preterm delivery is discussed. The global expanding problem of neonatal exposure to the combination of maternal HIV and tuberculosis is addressed from a developing country perspective, but is of great interest for physicians in high income countries as well. The importance of Tuberculosis has dramatically increased during the recent years
1744-165X/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.siny.2009.03.001
according to co-infection with HIV and emerging multi-resistant strains. Prevention strategies by vaccination are, when possible, most wanted. Such a strategy is illustrated by Varicella Zooster. Childhood vaccination is of interest as it will result in an overall incidence reduction reducing the risk for exposure of a pregnant woman. But on the other hand there is risk for an increase in susceptibility against varicella among adults with a potential risk for a shift in the age distribution of varicella towards higher age. Such a change might have importance for the occurrence of varicella during pregnancy. A variety of organisms have been associated with stillbirth. Some of these organisms are presented in separate chapters, but we found it to be of interest to address stillbirth in a separate review. We thank the authors for sharing their expert knowledge and hope the readers will enjoy their contributions. Hopefully this issue will provide new knowledge, facilitate patient care and stimulate further research. Lars Nave´r* Department of Neonatolology, Division of Pediatrics, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] Marianne Forsgren Department of Clinical Virology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Karin Pettersson Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden