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Written question asked by Peter Bottomley (Conservative) on Friday, 2 December 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 6 December 2016. It was answered by Philip Dunne (Conservative) on Monday, 12 December 2016 on behalf of the Department of Health.


Streptococcus

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the relative effectiveness of the enriched culture medium test and the common all-purpose test in diagnosing group B streptococus infection.

Answer

A number of published studies indicate selective enrichment broth culture of vagino-rectal swabs is superior to non selective plate culture to improve the recovery of group B streptococcus (GBS) and avoid the overgrowth by vaginal and rectal flora. Public Health England is not aware of any studies that have compared these tests’ ability to predict early onset GBS infection.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
56039
Session
2016-17
Subjects
Screening Streptococcus
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk