COVID
Group A Strep
WARNING: There are GRAPHIC images in this discussion.
Invasive Group A Strep (GAS) rates have been increasing in the US for about 10 years. This is the same species of bacteria that is responsible for strep throat in children. Of note, the mitigations at the start of COVID seem to have reduced these increases briefly. “The lack of contact and mask usage decreased the spread during the height of the pandemic, and people are interacting again.” Keep in mind that the gray bar indicates that this data is still incomplete.
The same pattern can be seen in invasive GAS death rates.
The most common cause of GAS is Streptococcus pyogenes. They look like clusters of grapes, here seen being attacked by a neutrophil, an immune system cell.
Viral infections of the upper respiratory tract (including Influenza, RSV, and COVID-19) are associated with increased susceptibility to invasive diseases caused by Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus), including pneumonia, necrotizing fasciitis, toxic shock syndrome, and bacteremia.
There has been a sharp rise in non-invasive GAS in children in the last couple of years, such as this study involving pediatric clinics in France.
This isn’t limited to non-invasive disease in children either. “During October 1–December 31, 2022, a combined total of 34 cases was reported in the Colorado and Minnesota ABCs sites. In comparison, a 3-month average of 11 cases and four cases were observed during the same period in 2016–2019 and 2020–2021, respectively.“
Of course, none of this really should be surprising when we know that COVID causes immune system damage. In addition, the virus likes to hang out in places like the tonsils.
It’s not just a problem in western countries either. Japan is having a major surge in cases of GAS. “Cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) reached 977 this year by June 2, higher than the record 941 cases reported for all of last year, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, which has been tracking incidences of the disease since 1999.“
“Viral infections of the upper respiratory tract [including SARS-CoV-2] are associated with a variety of invasive diseases caused by Streptococcus pyogenes, the group A streptococcus, including pneumonia, necrotizing fasciitis, toxic shock syndrome, and bacteremia.” When it causes disease in soft tissue, the press often refers to it as flesh eating disease.
Necrotizing Fasciitis Examples
This is a brief account of necrotizing fasciitis in a 55-yo male who had a mastectomy for breast cancer (yes, men do get breast cancer) as a means to provide just how damaging this can be. It can be much worse than this.
Three months after his mastectomy, “the patient revisited, presenting symptoms of swelling of the entire left arm which started from the axilla 2 weeks ago, high-grade fever for 5 days, severe pain, multiple wounds on the lateral aspect of his elbow with bloody discharge.”
He had to undergo surgical debridement of the wounds on his elbow. That’s a procedure to cut away dead, diseased, or infected tissue to give healthy tissue a chance to recover. This is how is elbow looked a two weeks (a) and six weeks (b) after surgery.
Here’s a more extreme example of necrotizing fasciitis infecting the face and head of a 67-yo homeless male in Australia. One doesn’t need to be a radiologist to see that there is involvement with his left eye.
After cleaning out the wounds, it was apparent that the bacteria had eaten completely though his scalp leaving the skull exposed.
Here you can see the extent of damage to his face and scalp ad the debride the tissue in the affected area, including enucleating (removing) the left eye.
He will carry the scars of this for the rest of his life. (A, B) are images at six months after surgery, (C, D) are images at one year after surgery.
Fortunately, GAS is relatively rare. What doesn’t make sense is increasing the risk of it and other diseases by getting infected with COVID.
Just a picture from my trip almost exactly 5 years ago so people who didn’t want to see those in the GAS section have a buffer.
Studies
Under Myth: It’s Not Dangerous for Children
“Strikingly, sC5b9 levels [a biomarker for microthrombi] were abnormal even in children with minimal disease or an incidental finding of SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting that any exposure to SARS-CoV-2 may be sufficient to induce elevations in this biomarker. In addition, schistocytes were prevalent in blood smears of patients with minimal COVID-19, severe COVID-19, and MIS-C. IL-8, a marker of endothelial damage, was also significantly higher in patients with MIS-C and severe COVID-19 compared with the minimal COVID-19 group [ie, even in mild infections, COVID causes blood clots and vessel damage].
The presence of elevated sC5b9 even in children with minimal symptoms of COVID-19 disease is particularly striking. This finding implies that SARS-CoV-2 clinical syndromes are associated with robust complement activation, even when symptoms are minimal.”
Under Sequelae: Pulmonary
“In the main and replication cohorts, individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection had a higher adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for post-acute respiratory sequelae compared to the general population (main: HR, 1.68 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.62–1.75]; replication: HR, 3.32 [95% CI, 3.27–3.37]) in Table 2. Furthermore, patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection had an increased risk for acute respiratory complication compared to non-infected controls (main: HR, 8.06 [95% CI, 6.92–9.38]; replication: HR, 4.17 [95% CI, 3.90–4.45]). When directly comparing the risk for acute respiratory complication between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza infections, SARS-CoV-2 infection was significantly associated with an increased risk (main: HR, 4.32 [95% CI, 2.73–6.83]; replication: HR, 6.51 [95% CI, 5.38–7.87])”
H5N1
The current situation in the US can be captured in two screen grabs. The higher these number go, the greater the chance of a nightmare beyond most people’s comprehension.
Suggested Reading
COVID
Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
“Debilitating a Generation”: Expert Warns That Long COVID May Eventually Affect Most Americans
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1800735032773955860.html
H5N1
The Dairy Industry Must Act Faster to Keep H5N1 from Starting a Human Epidemic
