Abstract
Background: Group B Streptococcus colonization of the gastrointestinal and genital tracts of pregnant women usually remains asymptomatic; even if it is the critical determinant of infection in neonates and young infants. It causes early and late onset of invasive Group B Streptococcus (GBS) disease manifesting as septicemia, meningitis and pneumonia. Now it is recognized as an important cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in many parts of the world including Ethiopia where the magnitude of the problem has been little studied. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of GBS colonization, to identify associated risk factors and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of GBS isolates among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Arbaminch General Hospital, Arbaminch, Ethiopia. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from March - July, 2016 among 281 pregnant women on their antenatal care (ANC) visit at Arbaminch General Hospital (AGH). Consented participants’ information was collected using structured questionnaire. Recto-vaginal swab samples were collected by consecutive sampling technique and inoculated directly onto 5% sheep blood agar (SBA) for isolation of GBS. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed according to the clinical and laboratory standard institute (CLSI) guideline, 2014 by disk diffusion method. Data was coded and entered into EPidata version 3.1 and analyzed by SPSS version 21.0. Bivariate and Multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to ascertain the association between explanatory and outcome variable considering p-value <0.05. Result: The colonization rate of GBS among pregnant mothers was 8.5%. The overall recto-vaginal GBS colonization in this study was not significantly associated with any of socio-demographic and obstetric factors. All of the GBS isolates were susceptible to penicillin, ampicillin and vancomycin. Resistance to ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, clindamycin, erythromycin, chloramphenicol and gentamycin was found to be 37.5%, 29.2%, 29.2%, 20.8%, 8.3%, and 4.2%, respectively. From a total of twenty four GBS isolates, two showed multidrug resistance. Conclusion and recommendation: This study found that GBS colonization rate was rationally high and most isolates were resistant to the commonly used antibiotics.
Highlights
Group B Streptococcus colonization of the gastrointestinal and genital tracts of pregnant women usually remains asymptomatic; even if it is the critical determinant of infection in neonates and young infants
This study indicated that pregnant mothers with previous history of PROM has slightly higher rate of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization (10%) than pregnant mothers who had no history of PROM (5.9%); even if the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05)
The current study presented the overall GBS colonization rate of 8.5% among 281 pregnant mothers with 35-37 weeks of gestation, attending antenatal care (ANC) of Arbaminch General Hospital (AGH), Arbaminch, Ethiopia
Summary
Group B Streptococcus colonization of the gastrointestinal and genital tracts of pregnant women usually remains asymptomatic; even if it is the critical determinant of infection in neonates and young infants. It causes early and late onset of invasive Group B Streptococcus (GBS) disease manifesting as septicemia, meningitis and pneumonia. Group B Streptococci (GBS) are part of the normal flora of the mucous membranes of humans, mainly colonizing gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts [1] The colonization of these regions is a risk factor for subsequent infection in Shimelis Shiferawu et al.: Prevalence of Group b Streptococcus, Its Associated Factors and Antimicrobial Susceptibility. Genital infection is responsible for almost onethird of preterm deliveries, and it produce protease activity resulting in cervical ripening [6, 7]
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