Dear Dr. Goncalves,

Thank you very much for submitting your manuscript "Estimation of country-level incidence of early-onset invasive Group B Streptococcus disease in infants using Bayesian methods" for consideration at PLOS Computational Biology.

As with all papers reviewed by the journal, your manuscript was reviewed by members of the editorial board and by several independent reviewers. In light of the reviews (below this email), we would like to invite the resubmission of a significantly-revised version that takes into account the reviewers' comments.

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[2] Two versions of the revised manuscript: one with either highlights or tracked changes denoting where the text has been changed; the other a clean version (uploaded as the manuscript file).

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Thank you again for your submission. We hope that our editorial process has been constructive so far, and we welcome your feedback at any time. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Muir Althouse

Associate Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

Nina Fefferman

Deputy Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

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Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Authors:

Please note here if the review is uploaded as an attachment.

Reviewer #1: Review was uploaded as an attachment.

Reviewer #2: The authors aimed to estimate the country-level incidence of EOGBS. The have also updated published methods using a hierarchical Bayesian approach. First, the statistical methods seem very appropriate for the task and I commend the authors the thought and effort that has gone into this work. It will represent an important contribution to the field of newborn health.

•The use of antibiotic coverage for children with respiratory infections seems to be a poor proxy for antibiotic use among pregnant women (lines 185-186). I understand the limitations in relevant data and the need to account for antibiotic use. However, the authors could discuss the implications, including directionality, associated with using this proxy.

•Related to antibiotic use, Figure 2 seems to indicate that median colonization prevalence from the literature is lowest in largely low- and middle-income countries. Am I reading this correctly? I would assume this has to do with exposure to antibiotics before being sampled in such countries. But I would be interested to hear the author’s perspectives on this. Would this need to be accounted for?

•Last, would it be possible to extend these findings to other countries? Could the authors comment on what might be needed extend this model to cover additional countries?

Minor points

•On line 57, the authors should provide a citation for Group B Streptococcus being a major cause of morbidity or mortality. Or tone down this language.

•On lines 60-61, the authors state that “only few studies had tried to assess…” But only one reference is given. Reference 5 also corresponds with a multi-country analysis and should be provided here.

•Beginning on line 65, it would help the clarity to note who used knowledge on the pathogenesis. Was this Seale, et al?

•For figure 5, could the authors consider a figure that captures incidence as well? Most countries seem to be right at 0 EOGBS cases, but I wonder how this would change if it were per 1000 live births.

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Have all data underlying the figures and results presented in the manuscript been provided?

Large-scale datasets should be made available via a public repository as described in the PLOS Computational Biology data availability policy, and numerical data that underlies graphs or summary statistics should be provided in spreadsheet form as supporting information.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Goncalves_Review_2021.pdf

Dear Dr. Goncalves,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript 'Estimation of country-level incidence of early-onset invasive Group B Streptococcus disease in infants using Bayesian methods' has been provisionally accepted for publication in PLOS Computational Biology.

Before your manuscript can be formally accepted you will need to complete some formatting changes, which you will receive in a follow up email. A member of our team will be in touch with a set of requests.

Please note that your manuscript will not be scheduled for publication until you have made the required changes, so a swift response is appreciated.

IMPORTANT: The editorial review process is now complete. PLOS will only permit corrections to spelling, formatting or significant scientific errors from this point onwards. Requests for major changes, or any which affect the scientific understanding of your work, will cause delays to the publication date of your manuscript.

Should you, your institution's press office or the journal office choose to press release your paper, you will automatically be opted out of early publication. We ask that you notify us now if you or your institution is planning to press release the article. All press must be co-ordinated with PLOS.

Thank you again for supporting Open Access publishing; we are looking forward to publishing your work in PLOS Computational Biology. 

Best regards,

Benjamin Muir Althouse

Associate Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

Nina Fefferman

Deputy Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

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Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Authors:

Please note here if the review is uploaded as an attachment.

Reviewer #1: The authors have appropriately responded to all reviewer concerns.

Reviewer #2: I am satisfied with the responses to my questions/comments.

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Have the authors made all data and (if applicable) computational code underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data and code underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data and code should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data or code —e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No