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. 2023 Dec 21;12(1):15.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms12010015.

Intersociety Position Statement on the Prevention of Ophthalmia Neonatorum in Italy

Chryssoula Tzialla  1 , Cinzia Auriti  2   3 , Salvatore Aversa  4 , Daniele Merazzi  5 , Stefano Martinelli  6 , Gabriella Araimo  7 , Luca Massenzi  8 , Giacomo Cavallaro  7 , Luigi Gagliardi  9 , Mario Giuffrè  10 , Fabio Mosca  7   11 , Irene Cetin  12   13 , Vito Trojano  14 , Herbert Valensise  15   16 , Nicola Colacurci  17 , Luigi Orfeo  18 , Vito Mondì  19 , On Behalf Of Their Respective Scientific Societies
Affiliations

Intersociety Position Statement on the Prevention of Ophthalmia Neonatorum in Italy

Chryssoula Tzialla et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

There is currently no worldwide agreement on the real need to administer conjunctival antibiotics to neonates at birth to prevent neonatal conjunctivitis (usually defined as ophthalmia neonatorum) by Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Therefore, there is wide variability in antibiotic administration, conditioned mainly by the social and health context. In Italy, a law enacted in 1940 required doctors and midwives to administer ophthalmic prophylaxis with 2% silver nitrate to all newborns at birth. This law was repealed in 1975 and since then there has been no clear guidance on the use of ophthalmia neonatorum prophylaxis at birth. Since neonatal conjunctivitis caused by C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae is not reported, we carried out a nationwide survey of 1,041,384 neonates across all Italian birth centers to evaluate the incidence of ophthalmia neonatorum and the current practice of prophylaxis. After analyzing the results, we formulated an intersociety position statement on the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum to update and standardize this prevention strategy in Italy.

Keywords: Chlamydia trachomatis; Neisseria gonorrhoeae; neonatal ocular prophylaxis; ophthalmia neonatorum.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Recommendations flow chart [22,23,25,28,42,43,44,45,46,47].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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