Background Sepsis is a major contributor to neonatal mortality, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). WHO advocates ampicillin-gentamicin as first-line therapy for the management of neonatal sepsis. In the BARNARDS observational cohort study of neonatal sepsis and antimicrobial resistance in LMICs, common sepsis pathogens were characterised via whole genome sequencing (WGS) and antimicrobial resistance profiles. In this substudy of BARNARDS, we aimed to assess the use and efficacy of empirical antibiotic therapies commonly used in LMICs for neonatal sepsis.Methods In BARNARDS, consenting mother-neonates aged 0-60 days dyads were enrolled on delivery or neonatal presentation with suspected sepsis at 12 BARNARDS clinical sites in

Streptococcus pluranimalium has mainly been found to cause infections in animals and was rarely isolated in humans. Very few cases of streptococcus pluranimalium have been reported in the literature. We report a first case of streptococcus pluranimalium meningitis in a pediatric patient. This patient was treated successfully with a combination of 3rd generation cephalosporin and chloramphenicol since her first day of admission. Only 4 of the reported human infections caused by Streptococcus pluranimalium were pediatric cases. We didn’t find neither adult nor pediatric cases of meningitis caused by this new novel species of Streptococcus pluranimalium. Clinical doctors have to remember that a rare pathogen like Streptococcus pluranimalium isolated primarily in animals can be a causative agent of human infection. More diagnostic methods are needed to detect early what could be rare causative germs of human infection. And when streptococcus pluranimalium is isolated, the first line antibiotics will be vancomycin, carbapenems, linezolid, aminoglycosides, and 3rd generation cephalosporins.