Emerging Infectious Diseases (Nov 2019)

Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology of Invasive Group B Streptococcus Disease among Infants, China

  • Wenjing Ji,
  • Haiying Liu,
  • Shabir A. Madhi,
  • Marianne Cunnington,
  • Zilu Zhang,
  • Ziyaad Dangor,
  • Haijian Zhou,
  • Xiaoping Mu,
  • Zhengjiang Jin,
  • Aimin Wang,
  • Xiaosong Qin,
  • Chunyan Gao,
  • Yuning Zhu,
  • Xiaodan Feng,
  • Shangyang She,
  • Shuhua Yang,
  • Jing Liu,
  • Jine Lei,
  • Lan Jiang,
  • Zeshi Liu,
  • Gang Li,
  • Qiuhong Li,
  • Qiulian Deng,
  • Kankan Gao,
  • Yu Fang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2511.181647
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 11
pp. 2021 – 2030

Abstract

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Invasive group B Streptococcus (GBS) remains a leading cause of illness and death among infants globally. We conducted prospective and retrospective laboratory-based surveillance of GBS-positive cultures from infants <3 months of age in 18 hospitals across China during January 1, 2015–December 31, 2017. The overall incidence of GBS was 0.31 (95% CI 0.27–0.36) cases/1,000 live births; incidence was 0–0.76 cases/1,000 live births across participating hospitals. The case-fatality rate was 2.3%. We estimated 13,604 cases of GBS and 1,142 GBS–associated deaths in infants <90 days of age annually in China. GBS isolates were most commonly serotype III (61.5%) and clonal complex 17 (40.6%). Enhanced active surveillance and implementation of preventive strategies, such as maternal GBS vaccination, warrants further investigation in China to help prevent these infections.

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