Key clinical point: Intrapartum rapid test to diagnose maternal group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization did not reduce rates of prophylactic antibiotics administered to at-risk mothers for preventing mother-to-child transmission of GBS infection compared with the usual care policy of offering antibiotics based on only risk factors.
Major finding: The proportion of women receiving intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent neonatal early-onset GBS infection was not significantly different between units assigned to rapid intrapartum test vs usual care (41% vs 36%; adjusted relative risk, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.83-1.64).
Study details: Findings are from a parallel-group cluster-randomized trial including 20 maternity clinics that were randomly assigned to a strategy of an intrapartum rapid test to detect maternal GBS colonization (722 mothers; 749 babies) or usual care (906 mothers; 951 babies).
Disclosures: The GBS2 study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Health Technology Assessment programme. JP Daniel, J Plumb, and J Gray declared being grant holders, receiving support for attending conferences, summits, or workshops from various sources and being members of various committees.
Source: Daniels JP et al. BMC Med. 2022 Jan 14. doi: 10.1186/s12916-021-02202-2 .