Neonatal purpura fulminans secondary to group B streptococcal infection.

Purpura fulminans is an acute and frequently fatal disorder characterized by sudden onset of progressive cutaneous hemorrhage and necrosis due to dermal vascular thrombosis and disseminated intravascular coagulation. The authors present a neonate with extensive purpura fulminans due to group B streptoccoccal septicemia and evaluated the attributable clinical mortality and morbidity of this potentially lethal syndrome. Clinicians especially neonatologists should be aware that early-onset sepsis of group B Streptococcus in the newborn infant with purpura fulminans could be a cause of maternal carriage due to colonization of this pathogen microorganism.