Urgent need for a vaccine to prevent lethal group B streptococcus

For the first time, this new study quantifies the major contribution of GBS premature births, as well as neurological impairments – such as cerebral palsy, hearing and vision loss – that can occur after GBS-related infections.

Several candidates for the GBS vaccine are under development, but none are yet available, despite being in preparation for decades.

Professor Joy Lawn,, Director from the Center for Adolescent and Child Reproductive Health (MARCH) at LSHTM and an associate of the report, said: “Group B strep infection is a serious challenge for every affected family and in every country. Vaccination of mothers could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of babies in the years to come, but 30 years since this was first proposed, the world has not delivered the vaccine. Now is the time to act to protect the world’s most vulnerable citizens with the GBS vaccine. ”

On average, 15% of all pregnant women worldwide – nearly 20 million a year – carry the GBS bacterium in their vagina, usually asymptomatic. It can then spread from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby in the womb or to newborns during childbirth.

Currently, antibiotic prophylaxis given to a woman during childbirth is the main means of preventing GBS disease in the newborn, if the bacterium is detected during pregnancy. However, even in regions with high prophylactic coverage, there are still significant health risks, as this intervention is unlikely to prevent most stillbirths associated with GBS, preterm birth, or GBS disease that occurs later in life.

Importantly, the greatest burden of GBS is in low- and middle-income countries, where screening and intrapartum antibiotic administration are most challenging, and therefore the vaccine is most urgently needed. The highest rates of GBS in mothers are found in sub-Saharan Africa (which accounts for about half of the global burden), and East and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Martina Lukong Baye,, Coordinator The National Multisectoral Program for Combating Maternal, Infant and Child Mortality at the Ministry of Public Health in Cameroon, which is also a contributor to the report, said: “A new vaccine for mothers against GBS would change the game in reducing neonatal and maternal mortality for the most vulnerable countries – especially sub-Saharan Africa where the burden of these deaths is alarming. We ask all stakeholders to treat this as a matter of moral priority. ”

The report urges researchers, vaccine developers and funders to accelerate the development of an effective GBS vaccine that could be administered to pregnant women during routine pregnancy screenings.

Estimates suggest that if GBS vaccination reaches over 70% of pregnant women, then over 50,000 GBS-related deaths could be prevented each year – as well as more than 170,000 preterm births. According to the report, the net cash benefit of one year of maternal vaccination against GBS could reach as much as $ 17 billion – and accumulating over several years – if the vaccines are affordable.

The report highlights important deficiencies in the data that lead to some uncertainty about the overall burden of deaths and illnesses caused by GBS. For example, the infectious causes of stillbirths are often under-researched in different countries, meaning that the real contribution of GBS could be even greater.

Debbie Forwood, whose daughter Ada was stillborn after she contracted GBS, said: “It’s hard to describe the breadth or depth of grief when your child dies, or the accompanying feelings of guilt and how it changes you, your family and your relationships forever. Only the GBS vaccine could save Ada. When the vaccine can be stretched widely, I will cry and scream from the injustice that it came too late for her, and for all the other babies who suffer unnecessarily and die every year to be postponed. But I will also weep with joy that they will live much longer in the future, and their families will be saved from the living hell that is the death of a child. ”

This report was presented at the Global Conference on GBS, ISSAD conference held by WHO and LSHTM from Wednesday, November 3 to Friday, November 5, 2021. This conference aims to mobilize researchers to fill data gaps and accelerate science to reduce the impacts of this life-threatening bacterium worldwide.