Bacterial infections in newborns linked to higher cerebral palsy risk

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-05-27 01:00

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Newborns who develop meningitis or sepsis in the first week after birth are much more likely to develop cerebral palsy, according to Danish research. To investigate how bacterial infections may impact the risk of cerebral palsy - the most common childhood physical disability - the researchers used Danish data to analyse all live births without major congenital abnormalities in the country from 2004 - 2022, totalling over 1 million births. 8151 of these children had sepsis in their first week and 236 had meningitis. The researchers say the risk of developing cerebral palsy was more than eight times higher among those who had sepsis compared to the general population, and meningitis was linked to a nearly 50-fold risk increase. The researchers say this means better prevention and treatment of newborn infections could potentially reduce cerebral palsy cases.