Invasive strep A: bad in affluent countries, far worse in low-income nations

The situation in low-income countries, which bear the brunt of strep A infection, presents tremendous challenges. One is the difficulty of getting an accurate diagnosis, given the absence of laboratory facilities, especially in remote or rural settings. Without a diagnosis, it’s difficult to begin timely treatment. Compounding matters is that strep A is not a notifiable disease in many low- and middle-income countries, meaning they collect little systematic data on it.

 What is Strep A? And how is it related to toxic shock syndrome?

People often think of TSS as being a tampon-related condition, but actually, TSS is an iGAS, where group A strep bacteria releases a harmful toxin, which can make someone very ill very quickly. Causing symptoms like a fever, a sunburn-like rash, lowering their blood pressure and leading to end-organ damage. TSS can be due to non-menstrual reasons and can affect men, children and non-menstruating women, too. The important takeaway information here is to practice good hand and respiratory hygiene and make sure you’re monitoring how you feel if unwell.

 What’s behind the recent surge in strep A and scarlet fever?

One explanation could be that a recent spike in respiratory virus infections has left people more susceptible to infection with group A streptococcus.

 Why are children dying of Strep A?

Infections are rising across the northern hemisphere. Some have been deadly.

Group A streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis: A practical guide to diagnosis and treatment

GAS pharyngitis can lead to suppurative complications, including peritonsillar and retropharyngeal abscess, and sepsis. Non-suppurative complications, such as post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis and ARF, are postulated to result from aberrant immune reactions in tissues following immunologically significant GAS infection (i.e., when anti-GAS antibodies are produced) [3]. Antibiotic treatment of GAS pharyngitis has been shown to prevent suppurative complications and ARF, but not post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis.

Airborne and Direct Contact Diseases - Group A Strep

Group A Streptococcus is a bacterium often found in the throat and on the skin. People may carry group A streptococci in the throat or on the skin and have no symptoms of illness. Most GAS infections are relatively mild illnesses such as "strep throat," or impetigo. Occasionally these bacteria can cause severe and even life-threatening diseases.

Group A β-hemolytic Streptococcus

Streptococcus pyogenes, or Group A streptococcus (GAS), is a facultative, Gram-positive coccus which grows in chains and causes numerous infections in humans including pharyngitis, tonsillitis, scarlet fever, cellulitis, erysipelas, rheumatic fever, post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, necrotizing fasciitis, myonecrosis and lymphangitis. The only known reservoirs for GAS in nature are the skin and mucous membranes of the human host. The clinical diseases produced by GAS have been well described, however, the pathogenic mechanisms underlying them are poorly understood, largely because each is the culmination of highly complex interactions between the human host defense mechanisms and specific virulence factors of the streptococcus.

Harmful Bacteria Masquerade as Red Blood Cells to Evade the Immune System

Now, Gonzalez and his team have discovered a new form of this microbial mimicry that’s especially macabre. To avoid being snuffed out by the immune system, the bacteria that cause strep throat tear apart red blood cells and then dress themselves in the debris, as reported today in the journal Cell Reports.

Strep A Infections Join RSV and Flu in Intense Respiratory-Illness Season

Bacteria called group A streptococcus, or group A strep, are common and can cause a range of diseases including strep throat, scarlet fever and a skin condition called impetigo, the CDC said. The infections spread mostly through respiratory droplets or through contact such as eating off the same plate. Most infections are mild and can be treated with antibiotics. Rarer, invasive strep A infections are more aggressive, entering parts of the body such as the bloodstream and causing serious complications including pneumonia, toxic-shock syndrome and necrotizing fasciitis or “flesh-eating disease.”

Strep A: three doctors explain what you need to look out for

Very rarely, strep A escapes from the skin or throat and causes a condition known as invasive group A strep, or iGAS. This leads to serious illness or even sepsis, including infections of the bloodstream, joints, bones, muscles, lungs, brain or deep skin layers (necrotising fasciitis). Children with invasive group A strep need to be treated in hospital with intravenous antibiotics.

Strep A: what are the symptoms and how can infection be treated?

Most health issues caused by strep A are mild, but can range from minor illnesses to serious and deadly diseases. They include the skin infection impetigo, scarlet fever and strep throat.

Strep Vaccine Could Save Lives and Reduce Health Care Costs—So Why Don't We Have One?

Does the world need a vaccine for strep throat? In a rare alignment, the pharmaceutical industry and global health advocates like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation both see such a shot as a low priority. And for the many American families for whom strep is just a routine, if annoying, feature of winter, that perspective may seem correct. But two researchers on opposite sides of the globe disagree—and in light of a recent spike in deaths, rising antibiotic resistance and a litany of other issues caused by this seemingly manageable infection, they may just be right.

The CDC Is Warning About Severe Strep A Infections in Kids—Here’s What to Know

Strep A infections are caused by a bacteria called group A Streptococcus, and they’re actually really common: Strep A causes millions of non-invasive infections each year, like strep throat, scarlet fever, and a skin infection called impetigo, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What’s not so common, however, is invasive group A strep (iGAS), which can lead to life-threatening complications.

Why is strep A surging — and how worried are scientists?

As the days lengthen and temperatures rise each spring, British paediatricians know what to expect: an increase in group A streptococcal infections that should tail off by the summer. But an off-season outbreak of the bacterial infections this year has jumbled expectations...