Background: Group B Streptococcus (GBS), also known as Streptococcus agalactiae, is a Gram-positive bacterium known for its ability to colonise the vaginal and rectal areas of the mother and is a leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity. This study aimed at determining the prevalence, associated risk factors and antimicrobial susceptibility of GBS colonisation among pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) at Dschang District Hospital.
Methods:This hospital-based cross-sectional study used a multistage sampling method to recruit a total of 621 consented pregnant women who attended ANC in Dchang District Hospital. The 621 Participants at 23.5 ± 6.4 weeks gestation each completed a questionnaire and vaginal swabs were collected for GBS analysis.Results: Among the 621 pregnant women that were included in this study, the colonisation rate of GBS was found to be 8.69%. Induced abortion (odds ratio [CI] = 3.09, 95% [1.56-6.21]), Spontaneous abortions (OR = 2.82, 95% CI 1.14-7.29), Stillbirth (OR [CI] = 7.75, 95% [2.61-21.71]), Fever (OR [CI] = 0.37, 95% [0.19-0.71]) and anaemia (OR [CI] = 0.22, 95% [0.12-0.43]) were found to be factors associated with GBS colonisation.
Conclusion:Our findings suggest that we found that, induce abortion, spontaneous abortions and stillbirths were highly associated rates of GBS colonisation, while fever and anaemia were associated with lower rates of GBS colonisation. Further longitudinal research is needed to establish the causal relationship and its biological mechanisms.Group B Streptococcus (GBS), also known as Streptococcus agalactiae, is a Gram-positive bacterium known for its ability to cause mother to foetus infection, neonatal sepsis and meningitis. 1,2 Early-onset diseases in infants such as chorioamnionitis, 3 preterm birth, 4 stillbirth 5 and meningitis 6 are the results of GBS vertical transmission from a colonised mother during or just before delivery. This suggests that maternal colonisation of the genitourinary tracts by GBS is the primary risk factor for early-onset diseases causing both early-onset (<7 days of life) and late-onset (7-89 days of life) neonatal sepsis 7 but also an important cause of premature rupture of membranes, advanced abortion, premature birth and a series of adverse pregnancy outcomes in women. 8,9 According to studies, GBS colonisation in pregnant women varies from place to place and ranged from 2.0% to 32.0%, 1 hence the prevalence of a neighbouring country or continent cannot be used to estimate the prevalence in our setting. Contradicting prevalences have been revealed according to specific sites in Sub-Saharan Africa 10 though according to Chaudhry et al 11 , this prevalence was found to be 19%. In Cameroon, few studies have been conducted on GBS with variable prevalence from 7.7% to 14% in Yaoundé 12,13 but in the West Region of Cameroon, no information exist on GBS. Awareness of GBS prevalence in specific parts of Cameroon remain an important asset to clinicians, in decision-making about the need for genital or anogenital GBS s...
