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Written question asked by Andrew Selous (Conservative) on Tuesday, 13 December 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 December 2011. It was answered by Anne Milton (Conservative) on Monday, 19 December 2011 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Streptococcus

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what guidance is issued to health care professionals on preventing group B streptococcal infection in newborn babies; and when this guidance was last updated;
Answer

Current guidance for obstetricians, midwives and neonatologists is provided by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), which published its Green-top guideline No. 36 on the prevention of early-onset neonatal group B streptococcus disease in November 2003.Information on the number of cases of group B streptococcal infection in babies is not collected centrally by the Department. The following table sets out information published by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) on the number of laboratory-confirmed group B streptococcal bacteraemia reports submitted by laboratories in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The HPA does not collect data for Scotland.

0-6 days 7-90 days
England Northern Ireland Wales England, Wales and Northern Ireland England Northern Ireland Wales England, Wales and Northern Ireland
2010 271 17 14 302 181 9 14 204
2009 246 11 10 267 182 . 13 9 204
2008 262 11 6 279 177 7 7 191
2007 235 13 10 258 148 7 8 163
2006 221 10 17 248 145 8 8 161
2005 187 9 11 207 121 3 7 131
2004 189 11 7 207 93 3 8 104
2003 ¹— ¹— ¹— 229 ¹— ¹— ¹— 111
¹ Not available for every constituent country separately. Source: All data sourced from annual Commun Dis Rep/Health Protection Rep articles found on: www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/StreptococcalInfections/EpidemiologicalData/

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
87182; 537 c1053-4W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Streptococcus
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk