Group B Streptococcus invasive infections in women of childbearing age, France, 2012 - 2020 : GBS CC-17 hypervirulence in intrapartum infections.

Abstract

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the leading cause of neonatal infections and an important pathogen in pregnancy. However, the features of pregnancy-associated infections are poorly reported. We analyzed 336 cases of GBS invasive infections in women aged 18 to 50 years old, including 242 (72.0%) pregnancy-associated infections. In pregnancy, most cases were intra-amniotic infections (55.8%), occurred preterm (61.3%) and were associated to obstetrical and neonatal complications (81.7%). The GBS clone CC-17 (18.8% of the cases) was overrepresented intrapartum (35.2%; OR = 5.1, 95% CI 1.6-19.3). This work highlights the burden of GBS and of the CC-17 clone infections during pregnancy.