Clinical, scientific and healthcare system consequences of misdiagnosing neonatal sepsis.

Introduction: Neonatal sepsis remains a major contributor to morbidity and mortality worldwide, with the highest burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Generating accurate estimates of disease burden is critical for setting research priorities, informing health policy, and resource allocation. However, in many LMICs, limited access to timely and reliable diagnostic tools severely limits case detection, undermines epidemiological surveillance, and impedes efforts to improve clinical outcomes.

Areas covered: This review examines the clinical, scientific, and health system implications of misdiagnosing neonatal sepsis. We describe the challenges of accurate case identification and summarize findings from prospective, multicenter studies showing marked variability in incidence across different geographic and healthcare settings. We explore the sources of this variability and discuss its impact on patient care, clinical trials interpretation, and progress toward reducing the global burden of neonatal sepsis.

Expert opinion: The lack of standardized case definition hinders neonatal sepsis research and may contribute to the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Addressing this requires acknowledging the substantial uncertainty in current global incidence estimates. More importantly, it demands shifting focus from passive reporting of variability to actively investigating the methodological, sociodemographic, clinical, biological, and systemic drivers that shape sepsis detection and outcomes across diverse settings.