Antibiotic Prophylaxis

Although rates of bacterial meningitis are low among neonates and infants, researchers estimated that febrile children in the first month of life are at nearly twice the risk for having bacterial meningitis compared with febrile children aged older than 1 month, according to a meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open.

The rate of early-onset disease caused by group B Streptococcus, or GBS, has decreased among infants in the United States between 2006 and 2015, according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers said late-onset disease caused by GBS is now more common in this population, which means efforts to prevent the disease should shift toward vaccine development rather than intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis.