Authors' objectives:

"The aims were to determine the cost-effectiveness of prenatal strategies for preventing GBS and other serious bacterial infections in early infancy and to establish the expected value of further information."

(from executive summary)

Authors' recommendations: "Based on our findings, immediate extension of current practice to treat all preterm and high-risk term deliveries would be beneficial. Thereafter, it is not clear whether the optimal choice would be culture-based testing for low-risk women, or vaccination plus treatment of all preterm and high-risk term women. There are also important issues of timing. Vaccination is unlikely to be available for the next 5 years and could not be implemented without Phase III trials, which will substantially reduce uncertainty over vaccine efficacy. In the meantime, implementation of culture testing for low-risk women appears to be the most cost-effective option but implementation costs could be significant and not recouped if, subsequently, a vaccination strategy was adopted."

Authors' methods: Review

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.hta.ac.uk/1473

Year Published: 2007

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: England, United Kingdom

Organisation Name: NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme

Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK

Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

Copyright: 2009 Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO