Strategies for GBS screening

Group B Streptococcus is estimated to colonise 10–20% of pregnant women and is a significant public health concern, associated with neonatal sepsis, death, chorioamnionitis, perinatal infection, and preterm labour. Universal prepartum screening with intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis has reduced early-onset neonatal GBS disease, yet it has simultaneously driven antibiotic overuse, rising antimicrobial resistance, and an increased burden of side effects.

Microbiological tests performed weeks before labour do not accurately reflect GBS status at delivery — colonisation can be transient or intermittent, and nearly three quarters of full-term infants with early-onset disease are born to culture-negative mothers. Recent RCOG guidelines no longer support routine prepartum screening.

This conference seeks European consensus on practical strategies to detect GBS status accurately at the time of labour, ensuring antibiotics are given only where truly warranted, and to homogenise current practices across European countries.