Septicemia in Galactosemia

Abstract

To the Editor.— Two newborns with clinical signs of galactosemia and deficiencies of galactose 1-phosphate uridyl transferase, patients of Drs. David Tuman and Melvin Rosh, respectively, had concomitant septicemias from Escherichia coli (C. A. McNicol, MD, and M. Rosh, MD, personal communications). The family of Rosh's patient included two older siblings who had died in infancy with sepsis. The history of a 7-year-old girl with galactosemia, a patient of Dr. Gerald Machinski, included an Aerobacter aerogenes septicemia in infancy. A fourth infant with clinical signs and the enzyme defect of galactosemia at 5 weeks of age, a patient of Dr. Alice Pita, had Klebsiella meningitis. At least three other infants with transferase deficiencies detected in the newborn screening programs of three states have had concomitant E coli septicemias; one of them had a family history of infant deaths from E coli septicemias (H. Levy, MD, and W. Ullman, MD,