It is not unusual for some healthy women to harbor Group B streptococcus bacteria in their rectum and vagina. These microorganisms do not usually cause disease when few in number, but when they grow in number and colonize these areas, bacterial infection can become severe.
A woman who is pregnant and tests positive for Group B strep or GBS may pass the bacteria to her baby during childbirth. GBS affects one out of 2,000 newborns in the US although not all babies born to GBS-positive mothers become ill. Doctors may routinely test pregnant women for GBS during their prenatal visits even if this type of infection is rare because severe outcomes can occur.
Why Is a Group B Strep Test Needed?
Although harmless to most adults, pregnant women may experience health problems associated with these bacteria, which can cause:
UTI or urinary tract infection
Chorioamnionitis (infection of the amniotic fluid and placenta)
Bacteremia (infection of the blood)
Sepsis (severe, widespread infection)
After normal delivery, GBS can also lead to infection of the inner lining (endometrium) of the uterus. For mothers who deliver by C-section, wound infection risk is increased.
A prenatal test for group B strep may also be done to protect a baby from exposure to the bacteria during normal childbirth. Although not all babies develop infection, affected babies could suffer from severe complications immediately or even sometime after birth. These life-threatening complications include:
Pneumonia (lung infection and inflammation)
Meningitis (infection of the membranes covering the brain)
Bacteremia
Sepsis
Women who test positive for GBS are usually given antibiotics during childbirth to eliminate bacteria in their birth canals. However, there is no ben...
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...et a late-onset GBS infection are delivered by GBS carriers, while others are infected through unknowm mechanisms. Prevention of the disease is therefore difficult.
Research on developing a vaccine that can prevent maternal and neonatal GBS infection is underway. More studies on testing and treatment for the disease are also being done.
Watch a video to learn more about Group B Strep Test (GBS) test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V4XADC89p8
Summary
Group B strep test is a prenatal screening test to find out if a woman is carrying certain streptococcal bacteria, which could cause maternal and neonatal infection. It is important to prevent infection, since it can cause severe complications.
Works Cited
http://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/groupbstrepinfection.html
http://www.babycenter.com/0_group-b-streptococcus-screening_1647.bc?showAll=true
instead of a disease. GBS is an autoimmune disorder in that the body starts attacking itself. The
“Children are our most valuable resource and are our future,” according to Herbert Hoover. In order to have children, we must have healthy mothers to bear and deliver those children. Pregnancy is, of course, a difficult time with physical changes and discomfort. However, sometimes pregnancy also brings life-threatening physical changes for the mother. One of these is thrombocytopenia, a disorder related to a low platelet count.
others heal. When a baby is born to a woman who has active genital herpes
Patient A.B. was a 26 year old female who had delivered her baby girl at 0502, approximately two hours before I assumed care of the patient with my preceptor. This was her third pregnancy and all were a cesarean delivery. Gestational age at time of delivery was forty weeks and one day. Mom was group B strep negative and required no antibiotics, blood loss was approximately 400ml and baby had Apgar score of eight and nine. The patient had a very detailed birth plan which included some details such as; staying with her baby, breastfeeding, and providing
If this happens, the embryo may be implanted in the tube, causing a tubal pregnancy. This serious complication results in a miscarriage and can cause death of the mother. Rarely, untreated gonorrhea can spread through the blood to the joints. Gnorrhea is treated with antibiotic drugs taken orally or by injection.
Although there is no known prevention for this disease it recommended for the mother to follow not put the growing fetus at any harm like smoking or drinking while pregnant and to regularly have checks with the doctor.
can be prevented by a vaccine. In 20 - 30% of the cases the infection spreads
The idea behind vaccines is to provide the body with just enough of the disease-causing substance to trick the body into producing antibodies against it. By injecting weak or dead infectious agents through the skin, it’s believed that the body will create the appropriate immune defense. Infants come into the world with antibodies they have gotten from their mother through the placenta. Infants who are breastfed continue to receive many important antibodies in the colostrum (the thick, yellowish premilk that is secreted during the first few days after a woman gives birth) and breast milk. During the first year of life, the immunity an infant gets from its mother at birth wears off. To help boost the fading ability to fight certain diseases, vaccines are given. Once the antibodies are produced, they stay around, protecting the child against the disease they were designed to fight.
Pregnancy can also be titled as a risk factor. You're at increased risk of contracting listeriosis which is an infection caused by listeria bacteria. This bacterium may also cause meningitis. If you have listeriosis, your unborn baby is also at high risk of catching meningitis.
our everyday lives bacteria is constantly surrounding us, some of the bacterium that we encounter are beneficial to us but then there are the ones that are severely detrimental to our health. The way that they effect a persons body can differ from person to person. Many of the “microscopic foes” are very resilient and have a very fast reproduction rate. Not only do they reproduce quickly they sometimes seem to outsmart our immune system and not allow our bodies to fight the infection making it almost impossible to stop them. One thing that a lot if people rely on is the assistance of prescription drugs to get them better but even the drugs are not being effective and we can’t stop the pathogens from invading our personal places such as work, home, school, or anywhere. Even though modern medicine is advancing the pathogens could still get the get the best of us. The scary thing is we never know when the next pandemic or epidemic is going to arise. All it needs is some ordinary microbe to swap genes with a deadly germ to produce a “super pathogen” and it could happen to anyone, anywhere, as it did to Jeannie Brown who is from “our neck of the woods”.
...For pregnancy detection, companies producing at home detection tests may want to incorporate detection of hCG-H for greater accuracy in their results. This would allow for optimal detection of pregnancy even before the time of missed menses. For hCG-H testing to be used to clinically determine pregnancy outcome, other laboratories would need to evaluate their own set of data to be able to properly determine if the 13ug/L cut off point found by Sutton-Riley et al. (2006) is viable. Studies would have to take many factors into account including age, race, overall health, and so on, to properly determine what normal values are. Detecting hyperglycosylated human chorionic gonadotropin is changing the way we now look at pregnancies and pregnancy loss. With further research, its full applications in pregnancy outcome and detection are becoming closer to being realized.
second, prenatal testing, is a testing of a fetus at risk for the disease. The
Tell your doctor your symptoms or if you have been exposed to genital herpes. When delivering your baby you could possible give it herpes even if you don’t have any kind of outbreak. If your doctor knows you have herpes a C-section is usually performed. Sometimes genital herpes can lead to having a miscarriage. Or you can deliver your baby earlier than expected.
Bacterial bladder infections may occur in women as a result of sexual intercourse. But even sexually inactive girls and women are susceptible to lower urinary tracts infections because the female genital area often harbors bacteria that can cause cystitis.
Sepsis is a “cunning, insidious and non-specific illness” (Raynor, 2012) but progression can be rapturous with a sudden catastrophic circulatory collapse and mortality up to 50%. (Angus et al., 2001) Over five million cases arise per year of maternal sepsis, resulting in an estimated 62,000 maternal deaths globally (WHO, 2008) During the 18th and 19th century, puerperal sepsis resulted in 50% of maternal deaths over Europe (Loudon, 2000). The World Health Organisation (WHO) defined puerperal sepsis as ‘infection of the genital tract occurring at any time between the rupture of membranes or labour, and the 42nd day postpartum, of which two or more of the following are present: pelvic pain, fever 38.5C or more, abnormal vaginal discharge, abnormal smell of discharge, and delay in the rate of reduction of size of uterus (less than 2 cm a day during the first 8 days)’ (WHO, 1992).