If you're Pregnant, you could be at Risk!
Group B Streptococcus bacteria will infect 15,000 to 18,000 newborns and adults each year in the U.S. causing bloodstream, respiratory, and other devastating infections.
GBS is considered the number one infectious killer of
newborns.
About half of GBS disease occurs in newborns and is acquired during childbirth when
a baby comes in direct contact with the bacteria carried by the mother. GBS causes
infections in pregnant women - in the womb, in amniotic fluid, in incisions following
cesarean sections, and in the urinary tract. Each year there are over 50,000 cases
of such infections in pregnant women.
The Group B Strep Association advocates that every pregnant woman be screened for
GBS. One third, or 1,200,000 pregnant women carry GBS bacteria. Doctors should
culture at 35-37 weeks of pregnancy.
- What are a mother�s risk factors for developing GBS disease?
- Positive culture for GBS colonization at 35-37 weeks
Having already had a baby who had a GBS infection
GBS bacteria in urine (bacteriuria, either with or without symptoms)
Membrane rupture more than 18 hours before delivery
Labor or membrane rupture before 37 weeks
Fever during labor higher than 100.4
Black race (2 times the risk than for non-blacks)
Age less than 20 years - If discovered through culture or risk factor, GBS can be treated with antibiotics.
In 1996 both the Centers for Disease Control and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published prevention standards for GBS. Routine prenatal culture at 35-37 weeks of pregnancy along with intravenous antibiotics during delivery for those mothers who culture positive for GBS offers the very best protection available for the newborn.
