Some moments are forever etched in a mother's memory – the warmth of a newborn's body, the grip of tiny fingers.
Sadly, for Kenyan Lynette Atieno, it's a feeling that also brings with it the coldness of loss.
Within days of being born apparently healthy, Lynette's baby inexplicably grew weak, his skin quickly turning ashen. By the time she reached the nearest clinic, it was too late.
"He was just seven days old," Atieno tells TRT Afrika, her voice breaking. "The doctors said it was sepsis. If they had known sooner, maybe…"
Her words trail off, drowning in the silence of a grief so strong that it leaves her drained.
Lynette isn't alone in her misfortune. Neonatal sepsis claims thousands of infants across Africa each year. In Nigeria, Amina Yusuf carries similar pain.
"They told me my baby had an infection, but the test took too long," she recalls. "She was gone by the time the results came in."
Sepsis, medically regarded as a life-threatening response to infection, is responsible for an estimated 15% of the 2.3 million infant deaths that occur globally each year.
The vast majority of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, where diagnostic tools are often slow, inaccessible, or unaffordable.
Critical step forward
On August 6, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a new target product profile (TPP) to guide the development of faster, more accurate diagnostic tests for serious bacterial infections, including neonatal sepsis, in infants under two months old.
Existing diagnostic methods aren't effective in resource-limited settings. Blood culture and molecular tests require advanced laboratories, take days to deliver results, and could even miss infections in their earliest stages.
Without reliable testing, many health workers rely on symptoms alone to arrive at a diagnosis, which leads to delayed treatment or unnecessary antibiotic use. Increased antimicrobial resistance is another challenge.
"Timely and accurate diagnostic tests for serious bacterial infection are critical to reducing newborn mortality," says Dr Yvan JF Hutin, director of the department of antimicrobial resistance at WHO.
Blueprint for change
The new TPP outlines specifications for next-generation tests. The primary requirements are that they must be affordable, rapid and usable even in rural clinics.
Ideally, these tests would enable healthcare workers to determine within hours whether a baby needs antibiotics or urgent hospital care.
"Early diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death," says Dr Silvia Bertagnolio, WHO's head of antimicrobial resistance surveillance. "This isn't just about better tests; it's about giving every newborn a fighting chance."
WHO's guidelines are targeted explicitly at test manufacturers, governments and global health partners. As the clock ticks on the challenge of transforming this blueprint into reality, grieving mothers like Lynette and Amina hope others don't suffer the trauma that haunts them to this day.
"If another mother doesn't have to lose her baby like I did, then maybe my pain wasn't for nothing," Lynette tells TRT Afrika.
