What are the current UK guidelines for screening pregnant women for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization?

Current UK guidelines do not recommend universal screening of pregnant women for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization. Instead, the approach focuses on identifying women with specific risk factors or clinical indicators during pregnancy or labour.

Women who have had GBS colonisation, bacteriuria, or infection during the current pregnancy, or in a previous pregnancy without a recent negative test, or who have had a previous baby with invasive GBS infection, are offered intrapartum antibiotics to prevent neonatal infection.

Testing by rectovaginal swab using enrichment culture or PCR is recommended between 35 and 37 weeks’ gestation or 3 to 5 weeks before the anticipated delivery date only if there is a history of GBS colonisation or infection in a previous pregnancy and no recent negative test.

Women with prolonged prelabour rupture of membranes between 34 and 37 weeks’ gestation who have GBS colonisation, bacteriuria, or infection are offered immediate birth by induction or caesarean section.

Risk factors for early-onset neonatal infection, including maternal GBS colonisation, are assessed during labour, and intrapartum antibiotics are given accordingly.

Routine universal screening of all pregnant women for GBS colonisation is not recommended in the UK guidelines.

These recommendations are based on the NICE guideline NG195: Neonatal infection: antibiotics for prevention and treatment (2021).