[Antibiotic treatment of women with group B Steptococci during delivery?]

Transmission of group B Steptococci from mother to child during delivery may cause serious disease in some children, but this can be prevented by use of antibiotic treatment during delivery. We have estimated how antibiotic treatment of all pregnant carriers of group B streptococcus during delivery would affect the total antibiotic use in Norway.

We estimated the use of penicillin G for treatment of 10 %, 20 % and 30 % of streptococcus carriers among those delivering. The Medical Birth Registry was used to obtain number of births and the Norwegian Drug Wholesalers Database to obtain total use of the various substances.

If 30 % of delivering women were carriers of group B streptococcus and treated with penicillin G, the treatment would equal 2.8 % of today's total use of penicillin G and 0.09 % of the total use of the whole group of beta-lactam antibacterial agents, penicillins.

Prophylactic antibiotic treatment of pregnant carriers of group B streptococcus during delivery would not lead to a substantial change in the current antibiotic use. The possibility of increasing antibiotic resistance should not be a main argument against using antibiotics in prevention of group B streptococcus infection in newborns.