Hospital mortality due to neonatal sepsis in Brazil

Abstract

Introduction:Sepsis remains among the leading causes of neonatal mortality worldwide, constituting an important public health problem. Objectives: To describe and analyze mortality rates from early and late neonatal sepsis in Brazil between 2020 and 2025, showing the temporal evolution, place of occurrence, age, sex, and co-lor/race. Methods: This is a quantitative, cross-sectional and retrospective study, with a survey of confirmed cases of neonatal sepsis in the last five years. Data were obtained from the Department of Informatics platform of the Unified Health System. Results: A total of 12,142 deaths related to neonatal sepsis were recor-ded in Brazil. The highest number of occurrences was recorded in 2021 (n = 2,646). As of 2022, there was a downward trend in the absolute number of de-aths, with records of 2,344 in 2023 and 2,163 in 2024. Regarding geographic dis-tribution, the Southeast Region concentrated the highest number of deaths (n = 4,582), followed by the Northeast Region. There was a predominance of deaths in the early neonatal period, especially among newborns aged between 0 and 6 days, totaling 5,757 records. Conclusions: The results reinforce that factors rela-ted to the biological vulnerability of the newborn, especially prematurity, remain strongly associated with fatal outcomes due to neonatal sepsis, corroborating the evidence available in the literature. These findings highlight the need to streng-then strategies for prevention, early diagnosis, and timely management of neona-tal sepsis, particularly among higher-risk newborns.