We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Offer all women the chance to be tested for Group B Strep.”
Details of Petition:
“It is estimated that approximately 1 out of every 1,600 babies born in the UK and Ireland develops early-onset GBS infection. This means that every year in the UK (with 700,000 births per year) around 440 babies will develop early-onset GBS infection. GBS infections can cause blood poisoning (septicaemia), infection of the lung (pneumonia) or infection of the lining of the brain (meningitis), and each of these can be life threatening. Sadly, even with the best medical care, 1 out of every 10 babies diagnosed with early-onset GBS infection will die (approximately 44 babies a year). However, if pregnancies at increased risk of GBS infection are identified and appropriately managed, most early-onset GBS disease in newborn babies could be prevented.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The Government takes this issue very seriously and has every sympathy for families whose newborn babies suffer from life-threatening GBS infection.
Current policy, based on advice from the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC), the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), is not to offer routine screening for GBS to all pregnant women because there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the benefits of doing so would outweigh the harm. For example, there are concerns about the potential adverse effects from the increase in the use of intravenous antibiotics, especially amongst women who are at low risk.
In line with the RCOG guideline on early onset (EO) GBS infection, healthcare professionals are encouraged to use clinical risk factors to identify women whose infants are at increased risk of developing EO GBS infection.
The UKNSC has carried out an extensive consultation on its policy in respect of screening for GBS, during which stakeholders and members of the public were asked for their comments, including at a stakeholder workshop held on 12 November 2008.
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