Group B Streptococcus is the most common cause of severe infection in newborn babies in the UK. Despite a risk-based prevention strategy for early-onset infection, in place since 2002, rates have increased significantly.
Data published by Public Health England (PHE) in November 2019 reported that the rate of group B Streptococcus (GBS) infections in babies during their first week of life in 2018 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has risen again.1 Updated guidance published in 2017 by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecolologists (RCOG) on preventing early-onset GBS infection2 should have led to a reduction in these infections in the newborn, yet the rates have increased. So, what are we missing?
Background
Group B Streptococcus (Streptococcus agalactiae) is a β-haemolytic Gram-positive coccus. It is the most common cause of severe infection in newborn babies in the UK,3 causing sepsis and pneumonia, and, in about 10%, meningitis.4 Approximately one in three survivors of GBS meningitis have some neurodevelopmental impairment, and one in five survivors have moderate to severe neurodevelopmental impairment.5
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