The natural history of group B streptococcal colonization in the pregnant woman and her offspring. I. Colonization studies.
A longitudinal study of colonization by group B streptococcus (GBS) was conducted in 93 pregnant women and 92 of their infants. Positive cultures were obtained from vaginal swab specimens on at least one occasion during pregnancy from 20.4% of the women. Three types of carriage were observed: chronic, transient, and intermittent. At the time of delivery, 12.9% of the mothers were colonized by GBS. GBS colonization occurred in 41.7% of the infants of the mothers colonized intrapartum. Only 1.2% of infants intrapartum culture-negative mothers were colonized. Infants colonized at birth were culture negative by 4 months of age. This study suggests that interruption of vertical transmission of GBS from mother to infant not only would influence the incidence of early-onset GBS disease but also might reduce the incidence of late-onset GBS disease.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D002353:Carrier State / Q000382:microbiology; D004423:Ear / Q000382:microbiology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008423:Maternal Age; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D010614:Pharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012007:Rectum / Q000382:microbiology; D013292:Streptococcus agalactiae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014470:Umbilical Cord / Q000382:microbiology; D014621:Vagina / Q000382:microbiology*