Spotlight on GBS 3 trial – looking at whether testing pregnant women for Group B Streptococcus reduces the risk of infection in newborn babies compared to the current strategy in place in the UK.
Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a common bacteria carried in the vagina and rectum of 20-40% of women and usually does no harm. If it is present at the time of a delivery, it can be passed to the baby leading to sepsis, pneumonia or meningitis.
Currently the UK screening team does not recommend universal screening as the majority of women who have GBS carriage give birth safely with no infection to their baby. Swabbing all women cannot predict which babies will develop GBS infection.
Giving antibiotics to all women who carry GBS would mean a large number of women would receive treatment that they did not need.
The GBS 3 trial is looking at whether routine testing of women using a point of care (PoC) test in late pregnancy or during labour can reduce the risk of neonatal GBS compared to standard care.
Offering patients access to clinical trials
Worthing and St Richard’s maternity services have been allocated to perform PoC testing on all women who present in labour > 37 weeks gestation and offering antibiotics if their swab is positive.
The teams are consistently swabbing 80% of our eligible women, which is a fantastic number for a relatively new trial.