Scarlet fever is back - pay attention on symptoms

In the past, scarlet fever was one of the main causes of infant death, but fortunately modern medicine in the 20th century managed to curb the spread of this disease caused by Streptococcus pyogenes or group A β-hemolytic streptococci.

However, something unusual seems to be happening in recent years. Namely, scarlet fever is becoming more and more widespread. A recent study, which was the result of international collaboration between scientists, suggested possible causes for what was happening. These causes are thought to be hidden in the genome of one of the strains of the bacterium that is to blame for scarlet fever. When it comes to infectious diseases, the "family tree" of the organisms involved can be extremely complex - so it is often difficult to predict where a new problem may arise.

The number of cases has been rising in different parts of the world in recent years

The bacteria that cause scarlet fever can excrete large amounts of t inside our body. i. superantigens that are capable of causing enormous damage, especially in children. The symptoms of scarlet fever are not necessarily very severe. At least today, the opposite is often the case: typical problems that occur with scarlet fever include skin rashes and sore throats. However, on the other hand, a much more severe form of scarlet fever is also possible, leading to t. i. toxic shock and organ death. Before antibiotics appeared, of course, a more severe, often even fatal version of scarlet fever was much more common.

At one point, scarlet fever seemed to be a completely marginal, almost eradicated disease, but then a few years ago they began to report from various parts of the world a kind of new wave of accelerated spread of this disease. The fact that this is anything but a negligible problem is evidenced by the fact that the new wave meant as many as 600,000 new infections or cases of scarlet fever.

A new bacterial strain is thought to be to blame for most cases of scarlet fever in the last decade

An international team of researchers, led by molecular biologist Stephan Brouwer, decided to study what exactly was going on. They focused mainly on the study of the genetics of group A streptococci. Among these superantigens is one that allows the bacteria responsible for scarlet fever a new, never-before-seen way of invading host cells.

Based on this, it can be concluded that the new outbreaks of scarlet fever are not related to the same bacterial strains as those in the past, but to a subgroup of group A streptococci that “learned a new trick”. She had the "help" of t. i. phages or bacteriophages - viruses that cause bacterial infections. When infected with bacteriophages, toxins were transmitted from viruses to bacteria or to specific bacterial strains, thus enabling them to colonize their hosts more efficiently. The strain of the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, which was previously considered to be less dangerous, thus gained an important advantage over others and took care of the "awakening" of scarlet fever.

Measures associated with the new coronavirus also temporarily slowed the spread of scarlet fever

Measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 virus appear to have, among other things, reduced the number of scarlet fever-causing infections at least temporarily. The methods of infection are also very similar to Streptococcus pyogenes or different strains of this bacterium as to the new coronavirus. But when life slowly returns to the old ways, which means that we will no longer pay so much attention to hygiene measures, maintaining the distance between them, etc., it can happen that the number of cases of scarlet fever will start to increase significantly again.

Photos are taken from google.com.

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