Group B Streptococcal Vaccine — Sisyphus Reconciled

As if envisioning the future dominance of group B streptococcus as a perinatal pathogen, Fry described the first well-characterized human infections 85 years ago in three postpartum London women with fatal disseminated septicemia.1 In the subsequent three decades, sporadic invasive group B streptococcal infections in parturients and neonates were described. However, in the 1970s, group B streptococcal disease dramatically changed when it emerged as the predominant cause of pneumonia, sepsis, and meningitis — often with fatal outcomes — in neonates and infants younger than 90 days of age. The incidence of maternal group B streptococcus–related complications, including intraamniotic infection, early . . .