Group B strep streptococcus is a common bacterium often carried in the intestines or lower genital tract. The bacterium is usually harmless in healthy adults. In newborns, however, it can cause a serious illness known as group B strep disease.
Group B strep can also cause dangerous infections in adults with certain chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes or liver disease. Older adults are at increased risk of illness due to group B strep, too. If you're a healthy adult, there's nothing you need to do about group B strep. If you're pregnant, get a group B strep screening test during your third trimester. If you have group B strep, antibiotic treatment during labor can protect your baby. Most babies born to women carrying group B strep are healthy.
But the few who are infected by group B strep during labor can become critically ill. In infants, illness caused by group B strep can be within six hours of birth early onset — or weeks or months after birth late onset.
Many adults carry group B strep in their bodies — usually in the bowel, vagina, rectum, bladder or throat — and have no signs or symptoms.
In some cases, however, group B strep can cause a urinary tract infection or other more-serious infections. Signs and symptoms of infections that may be caused by group B strep include the following. If you have signs or symptoms of group B strep infection — particularly if you're pregnant, you have a chronic medical condition or you're older than 65 — contact your doctor right away. If you notice your infant has signs or symptoms of group B strep disease, contact your baby's doctor immediately.
Many healthy people carry group B strep bacteria in their bodies. You might carry the bacteria in your body for a short time — it can come and go — or you might always have it.
Group B strep bacteria aren't sexually transmitted, and they're not spread through food or water. Without treatment, infection during pregnancy may increase your chances of:. A UTI can cause fever or pain and burning when you urinate.
If you have a UTI, you may find out about it from a urine test during one of your prenatal visits. You also get antibiotics through an IV during labor and birth, because you may have high levels of GBS in your body. But researchers are making and testing vaccines to prevent GBS infection in mothers and their babies. Get expert tips and resources from March of Dimes and CDC to increase your chance of having a healthy, fully-term pregnancy and baby.
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The chances are higher if you have any of these risk factors: Your baby is premature. It's estimated about 1 pregnant woman in 5 in the UK carries GBS in their digestive system or vagina. Around the time of labour and birth, many babies come into contact with GBS and are colonised by the bacteria.
But even with the best medical care, the infection can sometimes cause life-threatening complications and, in some cases, death. Rarely, GBS can cause infection in the mother — for example, in the womb or urinary tract or, more seriously, an infection that spreads through the blood, causing symptoms to develop throughout the whole body sepsis.
For more information, see Is my baby at risk of early-onset GBS infection? If you have previously had a baby with GBS, your maternity team will either monitor the health of your newborn baby closely for at least 12 hours after birth, or treat them with antibiotics until blood tests confirm whether or not GBS is present.
Late-onset GBS infection develops 7 or more days after a baby is born. This is not usually associated with pregnancy. The baby probably became infected after the birth.
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