Group B strep is a bacteria that can cause life-threatening infections in newborns and can also affect older people and those with chronic medical conditions. Pregnant women should be screened for the bacteria and treated with antibiotics. The bacteria colonizes in the lower genital tract of pregnant women and can be transmitted to the baby during delivery. Symptoms include fever, pneumonia, and meningitis. Treatment includes intravenous antibiotics.
Group B strep, more commonly group B strep or group B strep, is a bacteria that occurs naturally in the lower reproductive tracts and intestines of healthy adults, but can cause a life-threatening infection in newborns. Group B strep disease can also affect older people and people with chronic liver problems or diabetes. Most adults don’t have to worry about group B strep, but pregnant women should be screened for the bacteria to manage their risks while pregnant with antibiotics.
The group B streptococcus bacterium is scientifically called Streptococcus agalactiae. Streptococcus is the genus, a classification of spherical-shaped gram-positive bacteria that appear in pairs or chains, and agalactiae is the species. The colloquial name group B strep comes from the presence of the Lancefield group B antigen on the bacterium. An antigen is a molecule that the body recognizes as a foreign substance and triggers an immune reaction.
Although the bacteria are present and harmless in many healthy adults, group B strep infections can cause serious problems for newborns because they lack the antibody to fight the infection. The bacterium colonizes in the lower genital tract of pregnant women and can be transmitted to the baby both in utero and during delivery. While transmission is quite common in female carriers of the bacterium, it is much less common for the child to actually develop the disease. Fever during labor, early labor or membrane rupture, a urinary tract infection with group B strep, and a history of previous babies with group B strep increase the baby’s risks of infection. Doctors regularly check the mother for bacteria around 35 to 37 weeks of pregnancy, so they are usually prepared to fight off transmission using antibiotics.
A group B strep infection that appears in the first twelve hours after birth is called early-onset group B strep disease and is the most common and dangerous form of group B strep infection. Signs of the disease include scanty feeding, lameness and fever. Late-onset group B strep disease can occur about a week to several months after birth and can be characterized by seizures, lethargy, fussiness, difficulty breathing, abnormal heart rate and blood pressure, and fever. Your child can be diagnosed with the disease through a blood and spinal fluid test.
Group B strep can cause life-threatening complications in newborns, including pneumonia; bacteremia or blood infection; and meningitis. Intravenous antibiotics are used to treat your baby, as well as other treatments that may be needed to support your baby as he fights off infections. It is important to take your child to see a doctor at the first sign of infection.
The elderly, adults with chronic medical conditions, and pregnant women can also develop dangerous group B strep. Symptoms can include bacteremia, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, or skin infections. The disease is treated with oral or intravenous antibiotics, depending on the extent of the infection.
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