The routine screening of pregnant women for a common type of bacteria has been discouraged in new recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC).
Group B streptococcus (GBS), also called ‘baby strep’, is a type of bacteria which usually has no effect on people who have it, but can cause sickness in pregnant women who then risk passing it on to their children.
However, the UK NSC is no longer recommending testing for GBS in pregnant women as there is no way to confirm whether they will pass it on to their babies and so preventative antibiotics are often misused and can cause other negative effects.
In pregnant women, GBS can cause infection of the urinary tract, placenta, womb, and amniotic fluid and the infection can be passed on to their babies during labour and delivery. About 150,000 pregnant women carry GBS in the UK each year.
Each year in the UK there are between 400 to 500 cases of early onset GBS, which occurs in the first seven days of a baby’s life. The vast majority of babies affected will fully recover with prompt treatment.
It has been suggested offering screening at a later stage, 35 to 37 weeks of pregnancy, will help detect women carrying GBS who are more at risk of passing on the bacteria during labour, but UK NSC still found even screening at a later stage would cause more harm with large numbers of people still unnecessarily receiving antibiotics.
Director of programmes at UK NSC Dr Anne Mackie said: ‘At the moment there is no test that can distinguish between women whose babies would be affected by GBS at birth and those who would not.
‘This means screening for GBS in pregnancy would lead to many thousands of women receiving antibiotics in labour when there is no benefit for them or their babies and the harm this may cause are unknown.
‘This approach also cuts against the grain of ongoing efforts to reduce the number of people receiving unnecessary antibiotics. Much better evidence is needed on such widespread antibiotic use among pregnant women and whether it is possible to find a more accurate test.’
The committee also recommended against adult screening for alcohol misuse, which occurs when a person drinks over the recommended units, increasing the possibility of serious health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, liver disease and cancer.
All recommendations will now be considered by ministers.