GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is seeing an increase in strep A infections and recently recorded deaths among children in western Michigan.
Invasive group A strep infections are still rare, but doctors say they can lead to serious complications or death and want more people to be aware.
Pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. George Fogg said strep A infections occur when a strep infection goes beyond where the bacteria are typically found in a standard strep throat infection.
“If this bacteria gets into the wrong part of your body or the wrong compartment of your body, it can actually cause a very serious and rapidly progressing infection. This bacteria kind of produces a lot of toxins and is very pro-inflammatory, so it can cause a lot of tissue destruction,” Fogg said.
Fogg said the children’s hospital has seen deaths in recent months. Doctors have treated four cases of strep A in the past month and see an average of fewer than five cases a year.
The bacteria is mainly spread through respiratory droplets, but there are other ways to contract the infection.
Group A strep actually lives on your skin and so it can even go through a microscopic cut or something like that. It can cause cellulite when you have like skin redness and pain and things like that,” Fogg said.
It can be treated with common antibiotics, which can be very effective, especially if treated early.
“It can sometimes trigger rheumatic fever and that’s why we’re actually treating you for strep throat, we don’t want your immune system to cause this entity, but it can also cause these invasive infections,” said said Fogg.
The hospital wants people to be aware of the concern. There are things that can be done to improve outcomes for patients who do contract the infection.
“These invasive group A strep infections are rare, but they do occur and are associated with things like influenza and varicella (chickenpox) infections, which we have immunizations for,” Fogg said.
For more information on Band A, you can visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage.
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