sepsis is still one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in neonates, in spite of recent advances in health care units [1]. More than 40% of under-five deaths globally occur in the neonatal period, resulting in 3.1 million newborn deaths each year [2]. The majority of these deaths usually occur in low-income countries and almost 1 million of these deaths are attributed to infectious causes including neonatal sepsis, meningitis, and pneumonia [3]. On the other hand, the survivors of neonatal sepsis are vulnerable to short- and long-term neurodevelopmental morbidity [4–6].

Neonatal sepsis is defined as a clinical syndrome in an infant 28 days of life or younger, manifested by systemic signs of infection and isolation of a bacterial