Flesh-Eating Strep Infection: Scientists Discover Trigger That Turns Normal Infection Fatal

Scientists recently discovered that a seemingly common streptococcus infection can transform into a dangerous, flesh-eating disease that could affect mothers and their newborn children around the world.

A study published in the medical journal Nature Genetics analyzed strains of group A streptococcus, which usually causes strep throat and can also cause childbed fever disease. The latter is a severe infection that eats away flesh in infected areas and could even lead to death if left unattended.

"Puerperal sepsis, more commonly called childbed fever, causes a lot of deaths on a global basis in women who are in the process of giving birth or soon after birth," James M. Musser, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist and author of the study, said.

Musser’s team studied the flesh-eating pathogen by analyzing the interplay of genome, transcriptome and virulence among three strains of group A streptococcus. The team then used artificial intelligence to help them analyze data that was gathered.

“One of the very unexpected and exciting things we discovered was a strategy group A strep uses to cause serious disease in humans. This new mechanism we found controls virulence and determines whether the organism is just a pathogen or a really angry flesh-eating pathogen,” Musser said.

Musser and his team particlularly studied the M28 strain of group A streptococcus, which is said to be causing invasive cases of infection and childbed fever. The M28 is regarded as one of the top five group A streptococcus strains that are causing serious complications among patients all over the world.

What’s groundbreaking about the study is that data gathered can be used to create group A streptococcus vaccine that can save millions of lives. Musser revealed that scientists have been studying this strain for over 100 years, but there’s still no effective vaccine that has been developed.

Another breakthrough of the study is the use of artificial intelligence so scientists can come up with more accurate conclusions about the disease. Using the process allowed the scientists to use large data sets and analyze results more extensively “with different sets of eyes.”