Sir.—We read with interest your editorial1 on "Staphylococcus epidermidis Septicemia in Children: An Emerging and Difficult Problem" in JAMA and the article of Friedman and her colleagues2 on "Staphylococcus epidermidis Septicemia in Children With Leukemia and Lymphoma," which appeared in AJDC.
Several reports have brought attention to coagulase-negative Stahylococcus bacteremias as a hazard to children with compromised host defenses3 and to critically ill newborns.4 Our data confirm that staphylococcal bacteremia in newborns, particularly in premature infants, should never be ignored.
Twenty-seven newborn babies cared for in our unit with positive blood cultures for coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (30%) (among 90 positive blood cultures) were identified in the last seven years.
Seven (25.9%) of the 27 infants were born at term; four were average for gestational age and three were small for gestational age, with a mean birth weight of 2,804 g. All of these neonates had clinical evidence and laboratory signs of