Vaccine May Prevent Deadly Infection in Newborns
December 5, 2005 | Pregnancy and Newborns
For nearly 10 years pregnant women have been tested for Group B Strep, common bacteria that are harmless in healthy adults but can be deadly to newborns. Now there’s hope of a future vaccine.
Five years ago Nathaniel Schwartz was a bubbly toddler getting along without seven finger and toe tips. Those were the outward signs left by Group B Streptococcus. Nathaniel also lost a kidney. He nearly died from the infection as a newborn.
“Then you find out that it’s preventable and it’s easy to prevent and it’s cheap to prevent and that makes it worse,” said his mother, Donna Russell.
“Women need to become their own advocates, if they are positive. they need to be the ones telling people.”
Donna Russell is sharing her family story and urging expectant mothers to make sure they are screened for the common bacteria.
If a mother tests positive, a simple dose of antibiotics during delivery can spare the baby the infection.
These days more pregnant women are being screened and fewer babies are being infected. But researchers at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital are working on a higher level of protection. They’re trying to develop a vaccine against Group B Strep that would be given to women of child-bearing age.
“That’s what we are working on in this lab, trying to understand how the bacteria cause disease and the various tricks of how it establishes contact with the host: the mother, and how it causes infections in the first place,” said Dr. Craig Rubens.
“The vaccine would be wonderful, just wonderful,” Russell said. “It would be the only way you wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”
But the development of vaccines takes time, possibly five to 10 years. For now education is vital. Doctors and pregnant women need to be aware of Group B Strep, by talking about it before and during delivery to protect babies in time.
A vaccine for Group B Strep might not only spare infants life-threatening infections, but it could also spare elderly people, who are also susceptible to this common bacteria.