International journal of evidence-based healthcare
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Int J Evid Based Healthc · Mar 2014
Editorial ReviewRecommendations from international clinical guidelines for routine antenatal infection screening: does evidence matter?
Maternal infections in pregnancy may cause severe child morbidity. In this article, we aim to summarise recommendations from international evidence-based clinical guidelines for infection screening in pregnancy. ⋯ The variety of grades of recommendations hamper across-guideline comparison. Nevertheless, the article highlights agreed screening areas based on the best available evidence as well as areas of still existing uncertainty. Local health policy decisions on whether to include or refrain from including screening measures in preventive care programmes can be facilitated by the comparison of recommendations from international evidence-based guidelines. Beyond the availability of evidence each country's health policy makers will have to make a judgement on the value of the test for a population-wide screening.