The urgent need for maternal vaccination against Group B Streptococcus (GBS) took centre stage in Nairobi as Professor Anne Beatrice Kihara, President of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), delivered a powerful keynote address calling for accelerated action on maternal and newborn mortality ahead of a major global conference set for the Kenyan capital next year.

Speaking as the keynote speaker at the fourth conference on maternal immunisation, Prof. Kihara, president of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, emphasised the critical need to accelerate the reduction of maternal and newborn deaths through an initiative called "Every Woman, Every Newborn, Everywhere."

The conference brings together world leaders in Group B Streptococcus research, vaccine development, and public health to discuss, among other critical issues, the rollout of a global maternal vaccine against GBS. This year's conference is chaired by Dr. Hellen Barsosio, Clinical Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (KEMRI-LSTM) Collaboration.

"Today's conversation, we are looking at a bacteria called Group B Streptococcus," Prof. Kihara explained. "Group B Streptococcus colonizes the reproductive tract of the mother. And in so doing, it can have effects on the mother and effects on the baby. For the baby, the baby may be born stillborn."

The statistics are alarming, an estimated 18-20 million women globally carry GBS each year. The bacteria is responsible for approximately 400,000 cases of invasive disease annually in infants, including sepsis and meningitis, and is linked to an estimated 91,000 infant deaths and 46,200 stillbirths worldwide.

"The baby may have to be delivered prematurely with adverse neurological problems because of infections that even include infections of the brain," Prof. Kihara warned. "So we must begin to really look at the epidemiology of the disease burden."

Integrated Approach Needed

Prof. Kihara emphasized that achieving maternal health goals requires collaboration across medical disciplines.

"We need to put efforts together, the midwives, the gynaecologist, the paediatrician, the neonatologist, the physician. We must come together," she said.

Key priorities identified include making every pregnancy planned to avoid risks of unsafe abortions, ensuring sexually active individuals have access to family planning and contraception, and implementing the WHO-recommended eight contact visits during pregnancy. She noted that health workers must monitor vital signs with particular attention to blood pressure. "We do know in pregnancy, if a mother does develop hypertension, she may end up with complications of convulsions, complications of her kidney system. The baby may have to be born prematurely, which even increases the risk of mortality."

"We have increasingly noted that we need to advance from just providing tetanus toxoid, which most of us do know, but begin to look at disease entities that can affect both the mother and the baby, with detrimental or even mortality as a result of infections," Prof. Kihara said. Other diseases discussed include respiratory viruses like RSV, and lessons from COVID-19 vaccination programs for pregnant women. "What happened when COVID came? We had to get into vaccination programs even for pregnant women."

She warned that communicable diseases, including HIV, malaria, and TB, can have implications on the baby, adding that in today's world, "when lifestyle has a major contribution to the outcomes of mothers' health, it has a ripple effect on the baby." A major theme emerging from the conference is the need for Kenya to develop its own context-specific maternal vaccination guidelines through systematic data collection and establishing data repositories. "Last week we were busy trying to strengthen the data repository," Prof. Kihara revealed. "How do you link women coming to the clinic? We have a sound system where our national ID can actually be able to pinpoint you as an individual."

This data linkage, supported by Kenya's new Digital Act and data protection instruments, will enable health officials to understand disease burdens and provide sound vaccination to women across the nation. The conference also celebrated progress within the Africa region.