Researchers design a vaccine for Streptococcus

The researchers say that a vaccine which was 80% effective and reached 90% of women could potentially prevent 231,000 infant and maternal cases of disease. A pioneering research has revealed that the development of a vaccine against an infection commonly carried by pregnant women could curb stillbirths and baby deaths worldwide. The impact of disease caused by group B streptococcus (GBS) has not been properly chronicled before and only in relatively recent years has anyone taken seriously its role in the deaths of babies in the womb as well as in the early days of life. According to a report in the Guardian, eleven papers have been published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases and presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting in Baltimore, revealing the scale of infection and the damage it causes. They say there are 410,000 cases of disease every year and 147,000 stillbirths and...