From: KIKASUE@aol.com (Linda Siegel)
12/2/1996, San Ramon Valley Times
I read this in the paper yesterday. This is what it said:
A Harvard physician has developed a vaccine that one day could protect thousands of babies from a potentially deadly infection that mothers now try to avoid by taking powerful antibiotics during childbirth.
The threat is Group B Streptococcus, a bacterium that lurks harmelessly in many women's bodies but that can be fatal or brain-damaging if passed to infants in the birth canal.
The National Institues of Health plan to immunize some pregnant women late next year in studies designed to prove the vaccine is safe enough - and works well enough- to administer to millions of women.
About 30 percent of American women harbor Group B strep, a cousin of the bug that causes strep throat. About one in 500 of America's some 4 million newborns are infected at birth every year.
Ten percent die, and up to half suffer long-term damage from seizures.
Last spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised obstetricians to give penicillin to all women at risk when they give birth.
More than 1 million women may get treated every year, but even such widespread therapy isn't going to help all babies.
"We estimate in the best case, our approach will prevent 85 percent" of infections during childbirth, said Dr. Anne Schuachat.
In addition,, "I've spoken to many mothers who lost babies to late-onset disease" who don't understand that antibiotics during delivery simply couldn't help.
A vaccine would prod a mother's immune systems to send antibodies across the placenta and provide newborns with strep protection for a few months until the babies own immune system kicks in.
Kasper created the vaccine using the sugar coating that encapsulates Group B strep, enabling the body to recognize the bacteria without causing disease.
This first vaccine proved very safe for pregnant women but was too weak.
In a study in this month's Journal of Clinical Investigation, Kasper gave either the strengthened vaccine or the old, weaker one to 100 women in Houston who were not pregnant.
More than 90 percent who received the new vaccine made significant antibodies against strep, vs. a 60 percent response to the old vaccine.
Test-tube experiments showed antibodies culled from recipients of othe new vaccine were powerful enough to kill strep.
Then Kasper injected pregnant mice with the women's antibodies, which protected three-fourths of the baby mice.
North American Vaccine Inc. has licensed rights to his vaccine and is planning the research necessary to win Food and Drug Administration Approval.