Prevalence of Vaginal Colonization by Group B Streptococcus and its Associate Factors among Pregnant Women Referring to Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan

Group B streptococcus (GBS) is one of the relatively common causes of vaginal infection in women of reproductive age, which in case of infection in pregnant women is associated with adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes, such as early neonatal infection, abortion, premature delivery and neonatal death. Considering the different prevalence of GBS in different geographical locations, this study was conducted with the aim of determining the prevalence of GBS colonization in the vagina of pregnant women referred to Fatemieh hospital in Hamadan city in 2021.

In this descriptive-analytical study, 130 pregnant women referred to Fatemiyeh hospital in Hamadan city in 2021 were examined for GBS colonization using the purpose-based sampling method. Sampling was done using a sterile swab from the vaginal area, and the swabs were transferred to the microbiology laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine after being placed in the Todd Hewitt broth medium. Bacterial diagnostic tests were performed to identify GBS. After registering in the checklist, the results were analyzed with SPSS version 16 software at a confidence level of 95%.

The average age of the studied women was 29.85 ± 6.86 years, in terms of employment status, mostly unemployed and housekeeper (95.4 %), with middle school education (34.6%) and living in the city (93.8 %). About 70% of them had a history of pregnancy at least once, 30% had a history of abortion, 6.2 % had a history of premature birth, 6.9% had a history of gestational hypertension, 16.4 % had a history of gestational diabetes, 3.1 % had a history of genital disease, and 47.7 % had a history of urinary tract infection. The prevalence of GBS was 3.8 %. No significant relationship was observed between the frequency of GBS with the age of pregnant women, gestational age, previous pregnancy records, history of abortion and premature birth, and their disease records.

 Although the colonization of GBS in the vagina of pregnant women referred to Fatemiyeh hospital in Hamedan was low, due to its adverse effect on the outcome of pregnancy, screening for GBS infection and, as a result, its timely diagnosis and treatment is of special importance.