The national charity Group B Strep Support has organised the UK’s first Awareness Week from 26th September to 2nd October 2005. Supporters across the country will be taking part in a range of activities to raise awareness of group B Streptococcus (GBS), a bacterium which is the most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies.

Local volunteer Jane Plumb will be joined by her MP, Nicholas Soames, taking GBS Awareness Week packs to Dawn Holwell, Midwifery Sister at the Princess Royal Hospital on Tuesday, 20th September 2005 at 1.30 pm. The information packs contain posters and leaflets aimed at both health professionals and expectant parents. These explain the key facts about how most GBS infections in newborn babies can be prevented - by offering antibiotics to women in labour if certain higher-risk circumstances arise (including preterm labour, preterm or prolonged rupture of membranes and the mother having a raised temperature in labour) and where the pregnant woman has a history of GBS.

Nicholas Soames MP, who has made vigorous representations to the Chief Medical Officer over the urgent need to introduce screening, said, “Greater awareness among health professionals and expectant mothers will help prevent this tragic and wicked infection which so unnecessarily claims the lives of too many babies each year.”

Jane and her husband, Robert, set up the Group B Strep Support charity in 1996 after their second child, Theo, died from GBS infection the day after his birth at The Princess Royal Hospital. “If there’d been greater awareness of GBS back then, there’s a chance that Theo’s death from GBS infection might have been prevented … we’ll never know for sure,” says Jane. “But, by raising awareness of GBS and providing free packs of information materials to maternity hospitals, more people will be informed and more babies will have that chance, and that can only be good.”

Without preventative medicine, it is estimated that GBS infects up to 700 babies a year, killing approximately 75 of them and leaving another 40 with serious long-term mental or physical problems. Despite this, few pregnant women have even heard of the disease and all too often the relevant health professionals don’t fully understand how most GBS infections can be prevented. GBS Awareness Week 2005 will help address this knowledge gap.

GBSS will be submitting a petition to Downing Street after GBS Awareness Week – currently there are over 2100 signatures – see the link via www.gbss.org.uk or go direct just click here . The petition is asking for the Government to ensure sensitive testing for GBS carriage is routinely and freely available for all pregnant women in the UK and that relevant health professionals should be fully informed about GBS so they can advise expectant parents in their care. Currently reliable tests for GBS carriage are only available privately. Both Jane Plumb & Nicholas Soames have signed the petition.

-ENDS-

Further enquiries

Nicholas Soames, Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex

Tel: 020 7219 4143 020 7219 4143

E-mail: soamesn@parliament.uk

Jane Plumb, Chairman, Group B Strep Support

Tel. 01444 416176 01444 416176

E-mail: jane.plumb@gbss.org.uk
Website: www.gbss.org.uk

Notes to editors

1. Group B Strep Support (GBSS) is a UK charity set up to prevent GBS infection in newborn babies. Jane & Robert Plumb founded GBSS following the death of their second child, Theo, from GBS in 1996; they had a healthy child, Camilla, in August 1998.

2. Most pregnant women have not heard of GBS. It would be helpful if you would publish the charity's website and/or phone number.

3. GBS is the most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies in the UK. Without preventative medicine, GBS infects up to 700 babies a year, killing an estimated 75 of them and leaving another 40 with serious long-term mental or physical problems.

4. At present, the reliable tests are only available from one private laboratory, which offers a postal service for £32. Free GBS screening packs can be obtained from The Doctors Laboratory by telephoning 020 7307 7373 020 7307 7373 or e-mailing them at gbs@tdlpathology.com . More information is contained in their leaflet at http://www.gbss.org.uk/GBS_postcard.pdf .

5. GBSS does not have the resources to deal with requests from health professionals for free GBS screening packs. It would, therefore, be helpful to publish the telephone number given above for The Doctors Laboratory.

6. More information on GBS, including additional quotes, individual families experiences of GBS or contact with the charity’s medical advisers, is available from Jane Plumb.

7. So far, 70 MP’s have signed David Cameron’s all-party Early Day Motion No 538 about GBS. This is his third EDM about GBS - 228 MPs from all parties signed EDM 1211 in 2002/3 and 214 signed EDM 973 in 2003/4, making them amongst the most highly supported of the last two parliamentary sessions, showing that MPs across all parties consider this a very serious issue.

8. Group B Strep Support (GBSS) endorses the availability of reliable prenatal screening for GBS colonisation but has no particular links nor receives any money from any laboratory. GBSS wants to see the ECM test available routinely to all pregnant women on the NHS but, until it is, is supporting the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists’ national guidelines for a risk-factor approach to preventing GBS infection in newborn babies.

GBS: The Facts

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is carried by roughly one in three adults in their intestines, and a quarter of women carry it in their vagina, with no symptoms.

GBS is the most common cause of bacterial infection in newborn babies. It is estimated that, without preventative medicine, approximately:

• 700 babies (1 in 1,000) develop GBS infection each year, most commonly septicaemia, pneumonia and/or meningitis

• 75 babies (just over 10% of infected babies) die from GBS infection each year, and up to 40 survivors are left with long-term mental and/or physical handicaps

• Up to 80 per cent of all GBS infection in babies develops in the first 2 days of life and GBS infection is very rare indeed after age 3 months

Who is most at risk of GBS infection?

Each one of the following increases the risk to babies of developing GBS infection between 3 and 10 times:

• where a mother has previously had a baby with GBS infection;

• where GBS is found in the pregnant woman during the present pregnancy;

• where the pregnant woman has a raised temperature in labour;

• where labour or membrane rupture is preterm (before 37 weeks of pregnancy); and/or

• where there is prolonged rupture of membranes (more than 18-24 hours prior to delivery).

How can the risk of GBS infection in a baby be reduced?

Offering intravenous antibiotics at regular intervals from the start of labour to pregnant women with any of the above ‘risk factors’ significantly reduces the likelihood of a baby developing GBS infection.

Can I find out if I carry GBS?

The NHS does not routinely test for GBS and the test they use (a high vaginal swab) gives up to 50% false negatives. A highly reliable ECM (enriched culture medium) test exists, but is only currently available from a couple of NHS hospitals, and privately by The Doctors Laboratory in London (£32 for a postal service).

To best predict GBS status at delivery, the test should be carried out after 35 and before 37 weeks of pregnancy.

Where can I get more information?

If you’re concerned about GBS, speak to your midwife or GP. Information on GBS is available for families and health professionals from the charity, Group B Strep Support, telephone: 01444 416176 01444 416176 or visit: www.gbss.org.uk

For more information about sensitive testing, contact The Doctors Laboratory on 020 7460 4800 020 7460 4800 or at gbs@tdlplc.co.uk.