Since 2023, Japan has seen a sharp increase in the number of deaths from streptococcal A infections, with many departments on red alert. A few years after the Covid-19 pandemic, should Europe be worried?
Strep toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is usually caused by Streptococcus A, known as the “flesh-eating bacteria.” As of January 1, 2024, there have been 517 cases of the disease in Japan. A figure that worries health officials as SCTS is fatal in at least 30% of cases.
517 cases between 1er January and March 17, 2024, according to The Japan Times. Japan is concerned about an explosion in cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome after 941 cases were reported throughout 2023, a record year. That same year, SCTS caused 30% of the deaths of infected individuals, an “extremely high mortality rate”, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
Concerns are growing in Asia to such an extent that on Thursday March 21, 2024, Pyongyang announced that North Korea was protesting against Japan in the qualifying round for football’s 2026 World Cup.
This increase would be a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which infections associated with streptococcus bacteria have greatly decreased, due to strengthening of the barrier function.
“The population is less immune, it is the concept of immune debt, so there is a re-transmission and therefore the epidemic is recovered” deciphers for the bacteriologist, Marian Assama Tazi, who directs the National Reference Center for Streptococci.
SCTS is often caused by angina and impetigo in 80% of cases; More rarely, it is responsible for invasive infections.
GAS in particular causes very serious and often fatal invasive infections:
We also see endocarditis and septicemia in invasive infections associated with GAS.
According to statistics from Public Health France, 50% of meningitis cases are caused by S. Invasive infection due to pyogenes, 40% of cases of SCTS, is fatal in 20 to 45% of cases of necrotizing dermohypoderma. “With high epidemic potential, S. pyogenes is transmitted through the air (droplets, editor’s note) or by direct contact among people around patients,” notes Public Health France. According to the Japan Times, transmission can also occur through injuries, especially to the hands. Diagnosis of invasive infection is based on detection of sterile bacteria.
Japanese authorities urge the population to seek medical advice quickly in case of pain, swelling of the extremities or fever. Treatment is based on taking antibiotics. However, for many families of Pasteur Institute antibiotics, S. Indicates increased resistance to pyogenes.
In 2021, the Pasteur Institute showed “a real increase in invasive streptococcal A infections in industrialized countries and especially in Europe. In France, these invasive infections have been increasing since 2000, with an incidence rate of 1.2 to 3.3 per 100,000 inhabitants.
In 2022, in particular, an increase in the number of cases of invasive group A streptococcal infection among children under 10 years of age was reported in many European countries, including France, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. “In France and the United Kingdom, the number of cases of invasive GAS infection in children is many times higher than the levels recorded before the pandemic for the same period,” the World Health Organization then noted.
There is no vaccine against Streptococcus A and antibiotic treatment is sometimes not enough to fight the infection.
Ready-to-wear sector which is going through the end of crisis The Kovid-19 pandemic Not going…
This is a new record that scientists from the Korea Fusion Energy Institute (KFE) have…
Damages associated with drought, floods, hail and other increasingly violent events are expected to increase…
An estimated 9 million people in the United States are still waiting for their final…
The death of seven humanitarian workers from the American NGO World Central Kitchen in an…
Today, at one o'clock in the morning, Gamer updates it Boutique de Fortnite Through the…