摘要：Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 require asubstantial reduction in child and maternal mortality,respectively, between 1990 and 2015 (1).Infectious diseases are still the major cause of mortality inboth population groups.Maternal and neonatal infectionsremain responsible for more than 1 million deaths eachyear (2–6), i.e.10–15% of all maternal and child deathsglobally.The large majority of these deaths occur in lowincomesettings, among mothers and children that do nothave access to the (underdeveloped) health systems of theircountries (2–5).Maternal deaths are clustered around labour,delivery and the immediate postpartum period.HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death where HIV-related mortalityrates are high, and a number of other infectious agentsalso play a significant role (3).Newborn infections can bedivided into early (within the first week of life) and late infections(during weeks 2–4).The former are frequently relatedto labour and childbirth and are caused by an entirelydifferent spectrum of pathogens than the late neonatalinfections (7–9).
