From October to December 2022, the United States saw “an unprecedented number of group A strep infections in children.” A study by the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, warns doctors “about the opportunity to check for the presence of this potentially fatal disease” in patients with compatible symptoms.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the rate of other respiratory infections has decreased due to safety measures; but as these began to be lifted, diseases such as respiratory syncytial virus, influenza and group A streptococcus, made a comeback. A similar trend has been noted in Great Britain as in Italy and, now, also in the USA.
“In 2020 and 2021, the number of infections due to group A strep was far lower than before the pandemic,” explains senior study author Anthony R. Flores, director of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at McGovern Medical School in Houston.
“During the last quarter of 2022, however, the number of recorded infections, including invasive infections, was far higher than we have ever seen before”: 318 cases of group A strep were identified in Houston alone and the numbers continued to be high in the first quarter of 2023. “We are seeing strep much more frequently than in the past – concludes Flores – therefore, if a pediatrician sees a child complaining of a sore throat or a skin infection, they should suspect it can deal with this”.
breaking latest news © Copyright ANSA
