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GROUP B STREP
Group B strep (GBS) most often affects pregnant
women, infants, the elderly, and chronically ill adults. Since first emerging
in the 1970s, GBS has been the primary cause of life-threatening illness
and death in newborns. GBS exists in the reproductive tract of 20-25% of
all pregnant women. Although no more than 2% of these women develop invasive
infection, 40-73% transmit bacteria to their babies during delivery. About
12,000 of the 3.5 million babies born in the United States each year develop
GBS disease in infancy. About 75% of them develop early-onset infection.
Sometimes evident within a few hours of birth and always apparent within
the first week of life, this condition causes inflammation of the membranes
covering the brain and spinal cord (meningitis), pneumonia, blood infection
(sepsis) and other problems. Late-onset GBS develops between the ages of
seven days and three months. It often causes meningitis. About half of
all cases of this rare condition can be traced to mothers who are GBS carriers.
The cause of the others is unknown.
More than 13% of babies who develop GBS infection during birth or within
the first few months of life develop neurologic disorders. An equal number
of them die.
TREATMENT
Penicillin and other antibiotics are used to treat strep infections. It
takes less than 24 hours for antibiotics to eliminate an infected person's
ability to transmit GAS. Guidelines developed by the American Academy of
Obstetrics and Gynecology (AAOG), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP),
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend administering
intravenous antibiotics to a woman at high risk of passing GBS infection
on to her child, and offering the medication to any pregnant woman who
wants it. Initiating antibiotic therapy at least four hours before birth
allows medication to become concentrated enough to protect the baby during
passage through the birth canal. Babies infected with GBS during or shortly
after birth may die. Those who survive often require lengthy hospital stays
and develop vision or hearing loss and other permanent disabilities.
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