The streptococcus B vaccine could prevent more than 100,000 baby deaths worldwide and would be effective in the fight against miscarriages, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases and presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
the group B streptococcus (GBS) is a bacteria common in about one in five women (usually harmless) in the vaginal tract. However, sometimes it can be passed to babies during childbirth and cause infection. If there are antibiotics to treat it, the vaccine is not yet available.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, King’s College London, University of Bristol found that about 15% of all infants born worldwide in 2015 had been exposed to GBS at the time of birth. ‘childbirth, or 21 million out of 140 million live births.
Much of these infections and the resulting complications have occurred in developing regions such as Africa and Asia, which have more limited access to health care.
Potential effects of antibiotics and vaccines
Researchers estimated that by administering antibiotics during labor, 29,000 cases of early infection and 3,000 infant deaths were prevented by 2015. If all high-risk women were identified globally and antibiotics were prescribed for at least half of these cases, it could prevent about a third of deaths (27,000) and about 40% (83,000) of early infection cases.
The researchers also estimated that vaccinating all women could potentially prevent up to 70% of infections.
Read also:
Pregnancy: stress increases risk of miscarriage by 42%
Instagram account breaks silence around miscarriage
Miscarriage: beware of antibiotics
