Written question asked by Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 6 June 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 June 2007. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Friday, 15 June 2007 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Streptococcus: Pregnant Women

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will introduce enrichment culture method tests of all pregnant women to test for streptococcus B; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: The current position is that routine screening of group B streptococcus (GBS) should not be offered to all pregnant women. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s (NICE) guideline on antenatal care states that pregnant women should not be offered routine antenatal screening for GBS because evidence of its clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness remains uncertain.A proposal for NICE to appraise the use of an enriched culture medium for the detection of GBS carriage in a subset of pregnant women with clinical risk factors has been submitted on behalf of the UK National Screening Committee’s GBS Coordinating Group and is under consideration.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 142018; 461 c1392-3W
Session: 2006-07
Notes: Columns in printed daily part are numbered two columns ahead of columns on Hansard Online. Column numbers on PIMS refer to Hansard Online
Subjects: Pregnancy Streptococcus
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk