Between 1979 and 1982 we reviewed 1000 consecutive admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit of this hospital. Sixty five infants had positive blood cultures. Mortality was 70% among 17 infants who had septicaemia in the first 48 hours of life and for whom appropriate treatment may have been too late because of difficulties of early diagnosis. In the remaining 48 infants mortality was 12%,...

Mycoplasma hominis has been implicated as an important cause of septicaemia. There have been reported variances in the ability of blood culture systems to support the growth of this organism. In this study the ability of the BACTEC 9000 series automated system to grow and detect M hominis was assessed. Three of five wild M hominis strains grew in the BACTEC Anaerobic Plus/F medium but growth wa...