From: gbk@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (g.b.karlovsky)
Subject: Re: Strep B?
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:58:40 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.201812.9658@b11.b11.ingr.com> carrie@cjt.b11.ingr.com writes:
>
>Hi misc.kidders-- after a couple months of lurking, I have a question 
>about something called "strep B."  A friend of mine had a baby girl Saturday, 
>July 18, and the baby ended up in the Neonatal ICU due to a strep B 
>infection.  The baby improved rapidly once she started responding to the 
>antibiotics, but Saturday night was very rough, and she won't be allowed 
>out of the hospital for at least another week.  The baby was full term, 
>weighing over 8 pounds.  
>
>Since I'm expecting my first baby December 5 --which puts me a little over 
>20 weeks :-) -- I'm wondering if I should be concerned?  Specifically, how 
>common is it, and is there a test for this?  I do plan to ask my doctor 
>about this when I see him next, but I'm curious if anyone has heard of 
>this before.
>

Carrie -

Yes, I have heard of this before and I am increasing my knowledge about it
day-by-day due to my problem as an unpregnant Group B Strep sufferer.

Group B Strep is a bacterial infection of the vagina (it sometimes occurs
with Gardnerella).  The cause is unknown (it is not passed by sexual partners)
and it is fairly common.  In an unpregnant woman it is not that serious.
In a pregnant woman, it has been linked to premature rupture of the membranes
and Group B Strep in infants is often fatal, consider your friend's newborn
lucky... very lucky.  For women who have been diagnosed as having GBS, they
continue to colonize it for the rest of their lives.  It can at any point
become an active infection (with or without symptoms, but without symptoms
is more common).

There is a very simple vaginal culture they can do while you are pregnant,
though I don't know if this will tell whether you are a carrier if you don't
have an active infection.  In fact, there are groups that are trying to get
cultures to be routine prenatal testing.  While I can't say that infant
deaths due to GBS are common (I don't know numbers), I believe it is the
number one bacterial illness in infants.  By the way, a baby contracts GBS
in the vagina, so if I understand correctly, a c-section baby is safe.

For more information, there is a GBS Association, phone 1-919-932-5344,
address  P.O. Box 16515, Chapel Hill, NC 27516.  They have a newsletter
and generally seem to want to educate people about GBS.  By the way, please
give this info to your friend as it is something she needs to be aware
of should she ever get pregnant again.

If you are found to have GBS and expect a normal vaginal delivery, they
will probably want to put you on IV antibiotics during labor, and do a
culture, and then when the baby is born, they would put the baby on 
antibiotics until your culture came back (if it came back positive,o a
culture to determine if you had GBS during labor.  Then, when the baby is
born, the bay gets put on antibiotics.  If your culture comes back negative,
they take the baby off antiobiotics, if the culture comes back positive,
the baby probably stays on them longer.  One concern I have heard about this
management approach is that more babies die due to allergies, than to GBS,
but if a mother is known to be a carrier, I don't know if this is still
true.

I don't want to scare you, but I also don't want to tell you not to worry,
it can be fatal to your baby, and there are steps you can take to make sure
that doesn't happen.

		Good luck,

			Gail Karlovsky (mom to Adrienne, 27 months)
			gail.karlovsky@att.com


Newsgroups: misc.kids