2011 New e-petition for better prevention of group B Strep infections in babies

Please sign this new e-petition and ask your friends and family too as well.  You can share it easily using facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn from the e-petition page.

Once we get 100,000 signatures, we can expect it to be debated in Parliament – surely a massive step forward!

Please on this link to sign the petition, which is open to all UK citizens and residents.  The text of the e-petition is:

“We, the undersigned, ask the Department of Health to ensure that: every woman is routinely given accurate information about group B Streptococcus (group B Strep or GBS) during antenatal care; every low-risk woman is offered a sensitive test for GBS, ideally at 35-37 weeks of pregnancy; and every higher-risk woman is offered antibiotics in labour. GBS is the UK’s most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies. Offering antibiotics in labour to Mums whose babies are at raised risk would prevent most of these infections. Babies are at raised risk when their Mums are carrying GBS during the current pregnancy, have previously had a baby with GBS infection, whose labour starts or waters break before 37 weeks of pregnancy, whose waters break more than 18 hours before delivery or who have a fever in labour. Such prevention strategies massively reduce GBS infection in newborn babies (in the USA by almost 80%) yet the UK incidence is up 16% since 2003.”

No of Signatures:
0      15 August 2011
605 18 August 2011