Report Shows GBS screening Misses Cases
A report showed that sixty percent of newborns who develop a GBS infection were born to women who screened negative during the pregnancy. This could be due to the way that expecting mothers are tested. Normally screening for the existence of the GBS bacteria is done between the Thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Based on the research around eighty-five percent of expecting mothers are screened.
However the Group B Streptococcus bacteria can colonize after pregnant woman is tested but prior to labor and delivery. Under such circumstances, antibiotics will generally not be given by physicians and as a result the risk that the bacteria will be passed from mother to infant and that the baby will suffer from a GBS infection is not fully removed.