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New research published today in @LancetChildAdol has shown that group B Strep infection can have a long-term impact on babies, and that survivors are more likely to require special educational support. 1/9
Put simply, children who had GBS infection are twice as likely to have neurodevelopmental impairments (NDI) and need special educational support than children who didn't have GBS infection
While we've known for a long time that babies developing GBS meningitis often have disability as a result, this is the first evidence we're aware of around GBS sepsis' long-term impact.
Credit to @GatesFoundation for funding the research and the teams at @LSHTM, @DCEAarhus, and @UvA_Amsterdam for all the work, including @joylawn, @HorvathPuho, @markjit and many others
The study followed nearly 25,000 children born in Denmark and The Netherlands between 1997 and 2017. Both countries which, like the UK, use risk-factor prevention rather than universal testing of pregnant women.
More research like this is needed to establish the true burden of GBS infection, and its long-term impact.
Globally, the best prevention available is universal screening. Our short term aim is for the UK to introduce universal screening, as our rate of GBS infection is around 2.5x that of countries which already screen.
However, long-term the best prevention is likely to be a maternal GBS vaccine but this is still many years away. More needs to be done now to prevent GBS infections in newborn babies.
P.s. @joylawn will be speaking about this exciting new research at our GBS Conference in June. Buy your tickets now at https://gbss.org.uk/professional-resources/conference-2021/
