The World Health Organization recently revealed the worldwide burden of a common bacteria that killed over 100,000 babies each year, prompting a call for the urgent development of a vaccine.
An IFL Science! report said the WHO called for a vaccine, specifically against Group B streptococcus, a common bacteria implicated in the deaths of roughly 150,000 babies every year.
The health organization's report issued earlier this month revealed that the said global burden is much "higher than previously thought."
The alarming figure of newborn mortalities, the microbe is also associated with more than 500,000 births and at least 46,000 stillbirths each year, although the actual numbers are possibly much higher, as there are substantial data gaps around the total burden of both disease and death.
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The World Health Organization recently revealed the worldwide burden of a common bacteria that killed over 100,000 babies each year, prompting a call for the urgent development of a vaccine.
Group B Strep
According to Medical Officer Dr. Phillip Lambach, from the WHO's Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department, this new study reveals that Group B strep is a major and underappreciated danger to newborn survival and wellbeing, leading to devastating effects for so many families all over the world.
The WHO has joined partners in a call for urgent development of a maternal GBS vaccine, which would have insightful benefits in countries worldwide. Lambach is also this report's author.
GBS is harmless for most people carrying it. Fifteen percent of pregnant women, on average, almost 20 million each year, carry the bacterium in their vagina.
While the disease is usually asymptomatic, GBS can be transferred to babies during pregnancy, childbirth, or in the first weeks, which can be extremely severe.
Antibiotics for GPS Treatment
The bacterium is associated with neonatal and newborn meningitis, and sepsis is deadly and can lead to neurodevelopmental impairment and congenital defects.
At present, antibiotic therapy is used to treat cases in both infants and their parents. Antibiotics are used as a precaution for the prevention of GPS, as explained in the ACOG site. They are administered to parents during labor in whom the microbe has been detected. Nonetheless, the risk remains strong.
Director of Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health or MARCH Centre at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Joy Lawn said prevention of the early onset of GBS is possible in nations where it is policy.
However, she added that even with high GBS test and treatment use in pregnancy, GBS stillbirths and GBS-linked preterm birth will not be possible to be prevented with antibiotics.
WHO's Call for GBS Vaccine
As a result of the figures reported, a preventive maternal vaccine is thereby needed, WHO said, adding, several candidates are in the pipeline, although none are available yet, despite nearly four decades of work.
Prof. Lawn explained, the idea of maternal GBS vaccine was proposed roughly 40 years ago, although it is only during the last decade that "more progress has been made.:
She also said, one six-in-one vaccine is entering phase 3 trials in humans. Then, after this, a protein based-one follows. A few, which include an mRNA vaccine, are also in pre-clinical trials.
Promising as this is, the WHO report emphasizes the urgency of the situation, not to mention the calls for vaccine developers and funders to fast-track the development of safe and effective vaccines against GBS.
Benefits of the Vaccine
An approximated 50,000 GBS-associated deaths and more than 170,000 preterm births could be prevented each year if the vaccine reached 70 percent of pregnant women.
The benefits would not just be health-focused but financial, as well. The report also claims that between $1 billion and $17 billion could be saved globally from just one year of maternal GBS vaccination.
Coordinator National Multisector Programme to Combat Maternal, Newborn & Child Mortality at the Ministry of Public Health in Cameroon Dr. Martina Lukong Baye said, "a new maternal vaccine against GBS would be a game changer" in terms of decrease in newborn and maternal deaths for the most affected countries.
Related information about GBS is shown on Maureen Richards Immunology & Microbiology's YouTube video below:
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