Existing Methods Do not Stop All Newborn GBS Cases
A report revealed that 60% of infants infected with Group B Streptococcus are born to mothers who tested negative in the course of the pregnancy. This might be on account of the way that expecting mothers have been tested. Typically screening for the existence of the Group B Streptococcus bacteria is done between the Thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. According to the research roughly eighty-five percent of expecting mothers are screened.
Still the Group B Streptococcus bacteria can colonize after the woman is screened but earlier than labor and delivery. In such situations, antibiotics will typically not be given by doctors and therefore the risk that the bacteria will be transmitted from mother to baby and that the baby will get the GBS infection is not fully removed.