Children’s Hospital Research Aims To Prevent Group B Strep
Children's researchers hope to develop a vaccine that will prevent GBS from being passed from mother to child.
It’s the most common cause of life-threatening infections in newborns in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but most pregnant women have never heard of it.
It’s called Group B Streptococcal Disease (GBS), and it affects about 1,600 newborns each year. One in 20 will not survive, and those that do may endure long-term medical issues such as hearing or vision loss, learning disabilities or neurological problems.
Yet, through education, awareness, and research, GBS can be prevented and totally eliminated.
The Basics of Group B Strep
GBS is a bacteria found in the genital and intestinal tracts of adults. It often is not a danger to adults and is not a sexually transmitted disease, though it sometimes causes bladder and womb infections.
About one-third of all pregnant women carry GBS, though not every baby whose mother carries GBS will get sick. A baby is typically exposed to GBS when passing through the birth canal, though GBS can also infect an unborn child, causing premature labor and delivery, or even stillbirth.
To totally eliminate GBS, expectant parents must assume an important role: talk to your health care providers about strategies for prevention and recognition of the illness. Since 30 percent of women who carry GBS often have no symptoms, all pregnant women should have a simple and painless swab culture test done between the 35th and 37th week of pregnancy to test for GBS.
If the mother is infected, at least two doses of antibiotics given during labor and before delivery will protect the vulnerable baby from GBS. Even with antibiotics, however, some newborns still become infected and need to be treated.
Parents should contact a health care provider if their newborn shows these symptoms of the disease:
- Crying that won't stop in spite of comfort measures
- Sleepiness that prevents the baby from being awake enough to eat
- A hard time feeding or no interest in feeding
- A hard time breathing, such as working hard to breathe or making grunting noises while breathing
- Pale, blue or gray color of the skin or lips or around the mouth
- Fever or low body temperature
Combating Group B Strep Through Research
Research at Children’s Hospital has made great strides in learning how GBS bacteria causes infections in newborns and pregnant women. By identifying the important factors produced by these bacteria, Children’s hopes to develop a vaccine that will prevent GBS from being passed from mother to child.
Children’s has entered into a licensing agreement for developing a protein vaccine against GBS with Microscience, a London-based biotechnology company. A patent application has been filed on the gene and the protein it produces as a potential vaccine.
Craig Rubens, MD, PhD, chief of Infectious Disease, Immunology and Rheumatology at Children’s Hospital, has studied GBS for 19 years in hopes of finding a more effective antibiotic or vaccine against GBS.
“By making GBS screening a part of routine prenatal care and by treating the mother with antibiotics at the time of delivery, the number of infants infected by the disease has decreased by 75 percent in the last few years,” said Dr. Rubens.
“Now, we want to target prevention. A vaccine against GBS would stimulate antibodies in the mother that would be transferred to the baby by the mother’s bloodstream, protecting it from infection by the bacteria during labor and delivery.”
Research for understanding how GBS resides in the birth canal is also relevant to understanding premature birth, since one of the main causes is an infection of the placental membranes. This knowledge will be useful for ultimately preventing prematurity.
“This is another excellent example of the impact of our research mission,” said Treuman Katz, Children’s president and chief executive officer. “Through their innovative work, Craig Rubens and other Children’s researchers are laying the groundwork for significant advances in care not only for our own patients, but for children everywhere.”