Streptococcus agalactiae, or Streptococcus group B (GBS), is an important pathogen responsible for invasive bacterial infections in newborns like sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. It is aimed in this study to assess adherence to the preventing measures o

Abstract

Streptococcus agalactiae, or Streptococcus group B (GBS), is an important pathogen responsible for invasive bacterial infections in newborns like sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. It is aimed in this study to assess adherence to the preventing measures of early neonatal infection by GBS as recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in two periods, before and after the involvement of the hospital infection control committee (HICC) and to verify whether there was impact in neonatal morbidity and mortality in the second analyzed period. A cohort retrospective study was performed at the University Hospital of Londrina, PR-Brazil. Records of HICC of 800 mothers, 107 and 693, in the periods 2008-2009 and 2011-2012, respectively. After HICC involvement in the implementation of the CDC protocol, there was an increase of 88.2% in the collection of vaginal and rectal swabs of parturients, an increase of 95.7% in urine culture and an increase of 86.4% in intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis. Regarding symptomatic neonates, there were diagnosed 7/107 (6.5%) in the period from 2008 to 2009 and 49/693 (7.0%) in the period 2011 to 2012. In relation to symptomatic newborns, 1/107 (0.9%) died in the period 2008-2009 and 12/693 (1.7%) in the period 2011-2012. We concluded that the involvement of the HICC in the CDC protocol implementation was fundamental to get greater adherence to measures of early prophylaxis of invasive disease by GBS, but there was no impact on neonatal morbidity and mortality.