title: Carriage of group B Streptococcus in pregnant women and newborns: a 2-year study at Perugia General Hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence of group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization in pregnant women and their newborns at Perugia General Hospital. METHODS: The number of mother---child pairs examined was 2300. Vaginal swabs were collected from the mothers at delivery, and auricular and pharyngeal swabs and gastric aspirate from the newborns at birth. Maternal risk factors for GBS disease, including premature delivery, intrapartum fever, prolonged rupture of membranes and multiple births, were evaluated. RESULTS: Maternal and neonatal colonization rates were 11.3% and 4.6%, respectively. GBS was isolated in 41.5% of the neonates born to colonized mothers and in 0.1% of those born to non-colonized mothers. No significant difference was observed in vertical transmission rates in the presence or absence of maternal risk factors. The external auditory canal was the most frequent (93.5%) and heavily colonized body site. Type Ib was the most common serotype among GBS isolates from mothers and babies. C surface protein was not detected in serotype V and VIII isolates, but was frequent in all other serotypes. Early-onset disease was observed in 0.4/1000 live births. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of maternal and neonatal colonization at Perugia General Hospital was similar to that obtained in other studies performed in Italy. The external auditory canal was confirmed as the most reliable body site to be sampled for the detection of neonates exposed to maternal GBS colonization.
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Section, Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sensini
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tissi
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Verducci
authors.forename: Maristella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Orofino
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: von Hunolstein
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brunelli
authors.forename: Gian Luca
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Malà
authors.forename: Fausto
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Perocchi
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brunelli
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lauro
authors.forename: Remo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferrarese
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gilardi