At least six children under the age of ten have died in the UK in recent weeks. A three-year-old girl from the Landes, who died at the Bordeaux University Hospital at the end of November. The cause: an invasive infection with the Streptococcus A bacterium.
If the fatal cases brought to public attention today are few and no link has been established between the English and French situations, it is advisable to be alert to the symptoms of infections that can be caused by strep A.
This bacterium is present in our body, precisely in the throat and on the skin, without necessarily being pathogenic. When strep A is not benign (angina, impetigo, scarlet fever), it can be responsible for many invasive infections (toxic shock, lung disease).
“More than three quarters of infections caused by streptococcus A are not invasive,” says infectologist Gaëlle Bourgeois, interviewed by Doctissimo.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, “symptoms of a non-invasive group A strep infection include: fever, sore throat, and minor skin infections such as rashes, ulcers, bumps, and blisters.”
Invasive infections “can cause respiratory problems, destruction of skin and connective tissues, fever, dangerously low blood pressure, vomiting, and diarrhea.”
In France, these more serious infections have been on the rise since the 2000s, with the incidence rate rising from 1.2 to 3.3/100,000, reports the Institut Pasteur.
Source: BFM TV
