Group B Strep is the biggest cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies. The charity Group B Strep Support (GBSS) is urging the Government to make sensitive testing for group B Streptococcus (GBS) available for all pregnant women, as recent research shows this would save money as well as save babies' lives.
GBS is found naturally in around 25 per cent of pregnant women and causes no ill effects to most babies and their mothers. However, without preventative medicine, around 700 babies in the UK contract GBS around the time of birth, presenting as septicaemia, meningitis, or pneumonia. Of these, 75 will die while another 40 suffer on going health problems including deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, and severe learning difficulties. Antibiotics administered to Mum intravenously in labour are extremely effective at preventing GBS infections in newborn babies.
The research published in BJOG, an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, suggests that the NHS could actually make significant cost savings by introducing ECM testing for all pregnant women at 35-37 weeks and offering antibiotics in labour accordingly. The authors found that the cheapest preventative strategy would be to give antibiotics to all women in labour, but this would carry major disadvantages, such as medicalising childbirth and potentially increasing antibiotic resistance. Excluding this option, they found that "screening based on culture at 35-37 weeks' gestation, with antibiotics given to all those women who deliver prior to 35 weeks becomes the most cost-effective option."
Professor Philip Steer, Chairman of the GBSS Medical Advisory Committee, says, "Proposals for high quality trials of screening in the UK have been turned down because of lack of funding. In the meantime, other countries such as the USA, Australia, Spain, Italy and Germany have all introduced screening and seen major falls in the incidence of this deadly disease - in the USA by 70% since screening was introduced. I can see no reason why screening would not be equally effective in the UK and we now know it would save money as well as lives."
For further info: website: http://www.gbss.org.uk.
