Question reference: S4W-15628
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 12 June 2013
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 June 2013
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the reported incidence of (a) early and (b) late onset group B streptococcus infection has been in each year since 2003.
Answer
The number of laboratory confirmed reports of invasive group B streptococcal infections in neonates with early and late onset (as defined below) infection for the period of 2009 to mid-June 2013 for Scotland are summarised in table 1. Figures for 2003-08 are unavailable due to comparable data not being available for these years.
Table 1: Number and incidence of confirmed laboratory reports of invasive Streptococcal Group B infections by year (2009-2013 up to mid-June) in those aged up to 90 days:
|
Number of invasive Streptococcal Group B reports by year |
|
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013* |
| Early onset (defined as less than 7 days of age when sample taken) number of reports | 27 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 7 |
| Early onset estimated incidence per 1000 births | 0.46 | 0.46 | 0.46 | 0.47 | 0.26 |
| Late onset (defined as 7-90 days of age when sample taken) number of reports | 15 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 10 |
| Late onset estimated incidence per 1000 births | 0.25 | 0.32 | 0.36 | 0.34 | 0.37 |
| Number of births per year (National Records Scotland) | 59046 | 58791 | 58590 | 58027 | Not available as yet * * |
The following caveats should be borne in mind when considering this data:
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Invasive illness in this situation is defined as any report in which blood or CSF has been taken for clinical diagnosis. This is the closest comparative we have in Electronic Communication of Surveillance in Scotland (ECOSS) as information on the clinical diagnosis of individuals is incomplete and often not reported.
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The date the first sample was taken from an individual has been used as a proxy for date of onset of illness as we do not have detailed information on date of onset of illness in ECOSS.
* Note that the figures for 2013 are provisional, based on reports received up to mid-June and will change as more data including retrospective reports are received throughout the year.
**Incidence estimated based on average birth cohort size from previous four years - assuming that by mid-June 5.5/12 of birth have occurred