Antibiotics During Labor Help Cut Rate of Group B Strep Infections

Treating at-risk mothers with antibiotics during labor drastically cuts the rate of deadly group B strep infections in newborns, according to a study in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. Group B streptococcal infections, which became prevalent in the 1970s, were the leading infectious cause of death among newborns in the United States by the early 1990s.

About 7,500 cases annually caused 300 to 400 newborn deaths per year before doctors in the early 1990s began to treat many at-risk mothers with antibiotics--usually penicillin--during labor. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that treatment with antibiotics reduced the rate of group B strep infection by 65%.

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--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II