Results
Incidence During the study period, there were 143,750 deliveries, 66 women
identified with group A streptococci–positive in pregnancy or
post-partum. Of these 57 cases of puerperal GAS-, 42 (73.1%) delivered
vaginally, 5 (8.7%) by instrumental vacuum extraction, and 10 (26.3%)
by caesarean delivery. Nine women (13.6%) diagnosed with septic
abortions and had undergone dilation and curettage during their first
and early second trimesters.
During the study period, there was an incidence of one puerperal GAS
infection per 2521 deliveries (0.04%) during the 12.5-year study
period. Fifteen GAS-infected women were treated with antibiotics by
routine protocols during labour: specifically, nine women during a
caesarean delivery, three because of a GBS-positive test result, and
three others due to a fever during labour. Most of the identified cases
of infection occurred between October–April (n = 52, 78.7%)
compared to the period between May–September (n = 14, 21.2%,P = 0.0001) (Table 1).