A new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge has found that one in 200 newborns are admitted to neonatal units with sepsis caused by group B Strep, around 10 times higher than the previous estimate.
The study, published in Nature Microbiology, looked at the link between the presence of GBS in the placenta and the risk of admission of the baby to a neonatal unit. From their analysis, the researchers estimate that placental GBS was associated with a two- to three-fold increased risk of neonatal unit admission, with one in 200 babies admitted with sepsis associated with GBS – almost 10 times the previous estimate. The clinical assessment of these babies using the current diagnostic testing identified GBS in less than one in five of these cases, suggesting that the UK may be significantly underestimating the number of GBS infections.
Group B Strep Support’s Chief Executive Jane Plumb MBE commented:
“This important study highlights the extent of the devastating impact group B Strep has on newborn babies, and how important it is to measure accurately the number of these infections.
This research suggests that the number of preventable infections may be ten times higher than previously thought, each one having a significant impact on babies and their families.
Inadequate data collected on group B Strep is why we recently urged the Government to make group B Strep a notifiable disease, ensuring cases would have to be reported.
Without understanding the true number of infections, we may not implement appropriate prevention strategies and are unable to measure their true effectiveness.’
We need to do all we can to protect the most vulnerable in our society, and for the prevention of GBS robust data collection is central to this mission.”
