Prevalence of group B streptococcus colonization in pregnant women in Jiangsu, East China

Group B streptococcus (GBS) is the leading cause of early-onset neonatal sepsis. However, GBS was infrequently reported in the developing world in contrast to western countries. This study assessed the prevalence of GBS colonization among pregnant women in Jiangsu, East China, and revealed the difference of GBS infection between culture and PCR.

A total of 16,184 pregnant women at 34 to 37 weeks' gestation aged 16-47 years were recruited from Nanjing Kingmed Center for Clinical Laboratory. Nine thousand twenty-two pregnant women received GBS screening by PCR detection only. Seven thousand one hundred sixty-two pregnant women received GBS screening by bacterial culture and GBS-positive samples were tested for antibiotic resistance.

The overall GBS positive rate was 8.7% by PCR and 3.5% by culture. Colonization rate was highest in the "25-29 years" age group. The 249 GBS-positive samples which detected by culture were all sensitive to penicillin. The prevalence of resistance to erythromycin, clindamycin, and levofloxacin was 77.5, 68.3, and 52.2%, respectively.

This study revealed the data on the prevalence of GBS colonization in pregnant women at 34 to 37 weeks' gestation in Jiangsu, East China. It compared the difference of the sensitivity to detect GBS between PCR and culture. PCR was expected to become a quick method in pregnancy women conventional detection of GBS infection.