Neonatal Sepsis and Other Infections Due to Group B Beta-Hemolytic Streptococci

Abstract

BETA-hemolytic streptococci of Lancefield Group B have been implicated in human disease almost from the time when the precipitin-grouping technic first came into use.^{1 2 3} Since that time additional reports^{4 5 6 7 8} have established the fact that these organisms occasionally cause severe infection in parturient women, and less frequently in other adult patients and in newborn infants. Streptococcus agalactiae, the species designation⁹ of Group B streptococcus, has been recognized for many years at the Boston City Hospital from its characteristic colonial morphology on suitable solid mediums¹⁰ and observed frequently in primary cultures from obstetric patients and newborn infants. Recently, there appeared to be . . .