The Changing Spectrum of Group B Streptococcal Disease

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Abstract
Early in this century, Rebecca Lancefield discovered that β-hemolytic streptococci could be classified into serogroups according to the immunoprecipitation of bacterial extracts with specific antiserum. With the development of the Lancefield system, other β-hemolytic streptococci were distinguished from group A streptococcus, or Streptococcus pyogenes, the agent of streptococcal pharyngitis, impetigo, and the poststreptococcal syndromes of acute rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis. The recognition of group B streptococci, or S. agalactiae, as an important cause of human disease has grown since 1938, when Fry reported three cases of puerperal sepsis due to these organisms1. In the mid-1970s, hospital-based surveys suggested that . . .