Administering Antibiotics Treat Group B Strep Infections In Newborns

A pregnant woman who is a carrier of the group b streptococcus might transmit the bacteria to her child during labor whether or not the mother does not present any symptoms. Studies demonstrate that from fifteen to forty percent of expecting mothers have Group b strep. Without treatment, a child born to a woman who with GBS has a one in two-hundred chance of developing a Group B Strep infection. By administering appropriate antibiotics as she starts labor the chance that she will pass the group b strep bacteria to her baby is decreased by 2,000%.

So as to determine which pregnant women require antibiotics while in labor, asymptomatic pregnant women are screened for GBS between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Undergoing testing for GBS is a straightforward procedure. Because the bacteria normally takes hold inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the expecting mother, a swab is used to get a sample. The outcome of the test are frequently available inside forty-eight hours.

If an infant develops a group b streptococcus infection but is not treated immediately, the infection could develop into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Given that an infant's immune systems is not completely developed, the newborn might be left with permanent physical and neurological damage that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the approximately 7,600 babies each year who become infected with GBS there is a mortality rate of 10-15%.

Given the considerable danger a GBS infection presents for babies, physicians examining a baby who has symptoms consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy need to incorporate it in their differential diagnosis. See, for example, a reported lawsuit in which an infant, born to a woman who had tested positive for the bacteria during the pregnancy, started to exhibit symptoms consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. Yet, the pediatrician failed to match the symptoms in the babys postnatal record with the prenatal chart which recorded that the group b strep bacteria had been found in the mother during the pregnancy. Hence, the proper diagnosis was delayed and antibiotics were not given in a timely manner.

As a result of the time that passed before antibiotics were administered, the newborn sustained brain damage. The law firm that helped the family described that they were able to reach a settlement for the family for $750,000 with the doctor and $3,125,000 with the hospital.

Newborns can develop the group b strep infection even if antibiotics were given to the mother in the course of labor. Research conducted recently also revealed that a certain number of babies who develop the infection regardless of whether the mother tested negative. Doctors thus should consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby exhibits signs consistent with group b streptococcus . As this matter illustrates The failure to check the prenatal chart and to consider Group B Strep might amount to liability for medical malpractice.

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