Occurrence of Pantoea agglomerans bloodstream infection in neonatal intensive care unit at tertiary hospital in Tanzania: antibiotic susceptibility profile and clinical outcome

Pantoea agglomerans (P. agglomerans) is an environmental gram-negative bacterium that rarely infects humans. P. agglomerans infections have never been reported in Tanzania. We investigated the occurrence of P. agglomerans bloodstream infections among neonates in the Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and their subsequent clinical outcome that occurred in 2019. Blood samples were collected from neonates with sepsis. A total of 19 P. agglomerans were isolated from 17 infected neonates; two of the neonates had P. agglomerans isolated twice. A total of 14 patient files were retrieved from medical records. The mean age of the infected neonates were 3.75 ± 7.95 days. Isolated P. agglomerans showed high sensitivity to the antibiotics particularly chloramphenicol (94.7