Administering Antibiotics To Prevent Group B Strep Infections In Newborns

A mother who is a carrier of the group b streptococcus can pass on the bacteria to

her baby during labor even when the mother does not present any symptoms. Research demonstrate that between 15% to 40% of expecting mothers are carriers. If there is no intervention, a child born to a woman who with GBS has a 1 in 200 chance of developing the infection. By giving the mother the proper antibiotics as she starts labor the chance of the mother transmitting the bacteria to her infant is lowered by 2,000%.

To be able to determine which expecting mothers should be administered antibiotics while in labor, expecting mothers without any symptoms are tested for the bacteria between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Getting tested for group b streptococcus is a simple process. Because the bacteria generally lives inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the woman, a swab is used to get a sample. The outcome of the screen are generally obtainable in forty-eight hours.

If a baby acquires the infection but is not treated immediately, the infection could develop into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Given that an infant's immune systems is not wholly developed, the newborn might be left with lifelong physical and neurological injuries that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the approximately seven thousand six hundred infants who are estimated to be infected this year, ten to fifteen percent do not survive.

Given the serious risk an infection poses for newborns, physicians treating a baby who has symptoms consistent with an infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy ought to incorporate it in their differential diagnosis. See, for instance, a reported case in which a child, born to a woman who had a known history of being a GBS carrier during the pregnancy, started to show symptoms consistent with the infection shortly after birth. Unfortunately, the treating doctor failed to match the symptoms in the baby's postnatal chart with the prenatal chart which recorded that mother had tested positive for the bacteria during the pregnancy. As a result, the diagnosis was came late and antibiotics were not used in a timely manner.

Due to the delay, the child sustained a brain injury. The law firm that helped the family announced that they were able to reach a settlement for the family for $750,000 with the physician and $3,125,000 with the hospital.

Newborns can acquire a GBS infection even if antibiotics were administered to the mother during labor. A recent study also showed that a certain number of infants who manifest the infection even if the mother tested negative. Doctors thus should consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby exhibits signs consistent with group b strep. As this matter shows not reading the prenatal records or considering Group B Strep might result in liability for medical malpractice.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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