Sir Nicholas supports a new campaign launched by Group B Strep Support; “Why Guess… when you can test?”  

 

Commenting on the launch Sir Nicholas, who is a patron of Group B Strep Support, said; “Group B Strep infection can be deadly to newborn babies. On average, one newborn baby a day in the UK develops GBS infection and one baby a fortnight who survives this dreadful infection suffers long-term mental or physical disabilities. Making the ‘gold standard’ enriched culture medium (ECM) test available within the NHS would save lives. At present, when a health professional requests a test to detect GBS carriage in a pregnant woman, they are using a sub-standard test that will miss up to half of the woman carrying the bacteria at the time. This is not much better than tossing a coin and is simply not good enough. Why should health professionals have to use a test that’s little more than guesswork? It is time to stop guessing, and start testing.”