PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
GROUP B STREPTOCOCCUS (31 March 2004)

That this House welcomes the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Guideline No 36 on group B streptococcus (GBS); recognises that GBS is the UK's most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies, causing septicaemia, pneumonia and meningitis in an estimated 700 babies per year, killing 100 of these sick babies and leaving 35 survivors with long-term problems including brain damage; recognises that the implementation of the Guideline throughout UK maternity units would significantly reduce the incidence of neonatal GBS infection; calls on the Government to ensure that this guideline is used to inform every maternity unit's protocol for preventing GBS infection; and further calls on the Government to make reliable tests for diagnosing GBS colonisation, as recognised in the Guideline and as available in other European countries, the US and Australasia, available to pregnant women in the UK, so that more pregnant women whose babies are at raised risk from GBS can be identified and more of these devastating infections can be prevented.

Sponsored by:
Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Conservative)