Sepsis is one of the leading causes of maternal death—and the most expensive to treat worldwide.

Sepsis occurs when a bacterial infection spreads from one organ to the entire bloodstream. The life-threatening condition often requires hospitalization, a rapid response team, and a fast-acting antibiotic to prevent further damage to the body. And it adds up. The direct costs of sepsis care can be physically and financially catastrophic for patients and families, especially those in low- and middle-income countries.

Bridging the gap in maternal and children's health
Over the past 20 years, researchers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and at the UNC School of Medicine have made important contributions to public health, by conducting needed research in low- and middle-income settings through the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Global Network for Women and Children's Health Research.

In 2023, the UNC-Kinshasa School of Public Health research partnership participated in a large, multi-national clinical trial called the Azithromycin Prevention in Labor Use Study (A-PLUS trial) to test the effectiveness of intrapartum azithromycin, a broad-spectrum oral antibiotic, in combating maternal sepsis in pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries.

Their results, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that a 2-gram dose of azithromycin during labor reduced the risk of maternal sepsis or death by 33% in women who delivered vaginally in the DRC, Kenya, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Guatemala.

The economic costs of sepsis
But before policy makers decide to implement effective treatments, researchers must also show that the interventions have the greatest value to maternal and child health.

Using the same data from the 29,278 women enrolled in the initial A-PLUS trial, Patterson, Bauserman, and colleagues performed an analysis to quantify the cost of azithromycin tablets and health care costs associated with maternal sepsis across all eight countries combined.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-effective-antibiotic-maternal-sepsis-health.html#:~:text=Researchers%20found%20that%20low%2D%20and,woman%20planning%20a%20vaginal%20birth.