Group B Streptococcal Infection
Infection with Group B Streptococcus (GBS), also known as 'Streptococcus agalactiae' and more colloquially as Strep B and group B Strep, can cause serious illness and sometimes death, especially in newborn infants, the elderly, and patients with compromised immune systems. Group B streptococci are also prominent veterinary pathogens, because they can cause bovine mastitis (inflammation of the udder) in dairy cows. The species name "agalactiae" meaning "no milk", alludes to this.
Streptococcus is a genus of spherical, Gram-positive bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes. Streptococcus agalactiae is a gram-positive streptococcus characterized by the presence of Group B Lancefield antigen, and so takes the name Group B Streptococcus. The CAMP test is an important test for identification. GBS (group B Streptococcus species) are screened through this test. It is characterized by the presence of group B Lancefield antigen and by its ability to hydrolyze sodium hippurate. It is also sensitive to bile, and will lyse in its presence.
S. agalactiae's polysaccharide antiphagocytic capsule is its main virulence factor.
Read more about Group B Streptococcal Infection: Perinatal Disease, Group B Streptococcus Vaccine Research, Diagnosis, In Animals
Famous quotes containing the words group and/or infection:
“We begin with friendships, and all our youth is a reconnoitering and recruiting of the holy fraternity they shall combine for the salvation of men. But so the remoter stars seem a nebula of united light, yet there is no group which a telescope will not resolve; and the dearest friends are separated by impassable gulfs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What, then, was war? No mere discord of flags
But an infection of the common sky
That sagged ominously upon the earth”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)