Monthly Health Topic

July is International Group B Strep Awareness Month

The birth of a baby is usually a happy event, celebrating the joy of a new life. Sometimes though, the joy is tempered by the presence of a problem with the newborn. Fortunately, many health issues can be averted with adequate prenatal care.

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a disease that infects thousands of babies each year, but with proper prenatal care, can be treated effectively or avoided altogether. GBS is a bacterium found in the lower intestine (bowel) and/or vagina of 10-35% of all healthy adults. Normally, the disease does not cause problems, but when vulnerable people, like newborns (especially those who are premature), the elderly, and the chronically ill are infected, significant illness can develop. About 15,000-18,000 people are treated for GBS disease each year; about half of those are newborns. Nearly 800 babies die from this each year, and others are left permanently handicapped.

Babies can contract the disease during labor or delivery, or sometimes even earlier. It’s thought that the bacterium can also travel up the vagina of an affected woman and infect her fetus. GBS is not a sexually transmitted disease. It is not linked with increased sexual activity. However, it does infect more babies than other better-known problems like congenital syphilis.

Prenatal care is an important tool in preventing GBS infection in newborns. A pregnant woman should be screened at 35-37 weeks gestation for the presence of GBS. If a woman’s health provider does not offer the test, she should request it. If the test comes back positive for GBS, she will receive antibiotics during labor and delivery to lessen the chance that the disease will affect her newborn. It is important to remember that treatment begun too long before labor begins is likely to be ineffective in protecting the baby from disease if the mother is infected.

If labor begins before 37 weeks, or before a woman has been screened for the disease, the physician will treat her based on her risk factors, and a physical exam. Antibiotics may or may not be given.

Screening all women for this disease at the appropriate time can result in more healthy babies, free of this potentially life-threatening disease.