Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Strategies for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) Infection in Pediatrics: A Systematic Review.

Background and Objectives: Group B streptococcus (GBS) is the leading cause of infections in neonates with high fatality rates. GBS is caused by the streptococcus bacterium known as streptococcus agalactiae, which is highly contagious and can be transmitted from pregnant women to infants. GBS infection can occur as an early onset or late-onset infection and has different treatment strategies. Antibiotics are effective in treating GBS infections at early stages. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the clinical characteristics and treatment strategies for GBS, with a focus on antibiotics. Material and Methods: The findings of this review were reported in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines and a flow diagram of the study selection process, a summary of the included studies, a description of the study characteristics, a summary of the results, a discussion of the implications of the findings, and a conclusion are included. Overall, the authors followed a rigorous methodology to ensure that this review is comprehensive and inclusive of relevant studies on GBS infection and its treatment. Results: Overall, 940 studies were reviewed and only the most relevant 22 studies were included in the systematic review. This review describes the characteristics of patients in different studies related to early onset GBS disease and presents various treatment strategies and outcomes for GBS infection in pediatrics. The studies suggest that preventive measures, risk-based intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis, and maternal vaccination can significantly reduce the burden of GBS disease, but late-onset GBS disease remains a concern, and more strategies are required to decrease its rate. Improvement is needed in the management of the risk factors of GBS. A conjugate vaccine with a serotype (Ia, Ib, II, III, and V) has been proven effective in the prevention of GBS in neonates. Moreover, penicillin is an important core antibiotic for treating early onset GBS (EOD). Conclusions: This systematic review summarizes the treatment comparison for GBS infections in neonates, with a primary focus on antibiotics. IAP (intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis) according to guidelines, antenatal screening, and the development of a conjugate vaccine may be effective and could lower the incidence of the disease.

Knowledge and Attitude of Dentists toward Silver Diamine Fluoride in Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION: Dental caries is managed by two approaches: prevention which focuses on inhibiting the caries progression, and the traditional approach which is treating caries by drilling and filling. Logically, the first approach is more effective. One of the recently marketed preventive methods for preventing and inhibiting the progression of dental caries is silver diamine fluoride (SDF), which is proven to be minimally invasive and cost-effective, SDF has proven to have a significant success rate in caries prevention, especially in the early childhood caries. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to evaluate general practitioners' SDF clinical experience, knowledge, professional behavior, and attitudes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional study and we utilized a random sampling of Saudi general dental practitioners from different places in the Hail region, KSA. The study was conducted using papered interview and an online questionnaire followed by educating the dentists about SDF. RESULTS: Dentists were asked about SDF, 62.7% answered that they heard about SDF topical application, but the dentists who answered all questions correctly are only 14.89% with no statistically significant difference among gender, age, or sector. CONCLUSION: This study had several limitations. It only included the dental GPA in the Hail region, Saudi Arabia. As is the case with all surveys, only a limited number of questions could be asked. Thus, the information to be obtained is also limited. Future research should therefore include other questions to clarify other aspects which we could not explore in this research. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Alshammari AF, Alenzi RH, Alanezi AA, et al. Knowledge and Attitude of Dentists toward Silver Diamine Fluoride in Saudi Arabia. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(5):662-665.