Group A Streptococcus: What you need to know

Group A Streptococcus is one of the most common bacteria that cause infections in the throat and skin areas of the body. When these infections become invasive, they are potentially life-threatening, so treatment for group A strep should be started early to reduce the risk.

Currently, there are more than 200 viruses that are the cause of sore throat, and the disease will go away on its own when our body's resistance is good enough. But if the body does not have enough resistance to fight the disease, these patients will be at risk of acquiring bacterial superinfections. In particular, group A streptococcus, also scientifically known as group A streptococcus bacteria, is the most dangerous type of bacteria, causing diseases in the throat and skin of humans.
Group A hemolytic streptococcus will be transmitted through direct contact with fluids and secretions from the nose and throat of an infected person. In addition, this bacteria is also spread through direct contact with wounds, sores on the skin that have been infected.

About 20% of people carry this group A hemolytic streptococcus in the body in the throat area but do not show symptoms. When this type of bacteria causes disease, there will be 2 types: invasive and non-invasive:
If infection with group A streptococcus bacteria is non-invasive, it will include the following types of clinical disease such as pharyngitis streptococcus in children, scarlet fever, impetigo, ear infections and pneumonia. This type of infection is usually not serious and is more contagious than an invasive group A strep infection.
If it is an invasive group A hemolytic streptococcal infection, the level of danger will be higher, including diseases such as acute streptococcal toxic syndrome, rheumatic fever, and necrotizingitis. For this invasive group A streptococcus infection, bacteria belonging to the particular family of bacteria, M-1 and M-3, are uncommon, but once infected with bacteria of this strain, it will go inside. in tissues of the body causing necrotizing inflammation, or crossing the body's protective barrier into the bloodstream causing acute streptococcal toxicity syndrome as mentioned above.

Streptococcal pharyngitis in children is one of the common diseases in the group of streptococcal diseases in children. The disease often has common manifestations such as sore throat (not caused by bacteria), burning pain when swallowing, high fever up to 40°C, body fatigue, not alertness, nausea, dizziness, headache, lymphadenopathy in the anterior neck region, red rash all over the body.
Those susceptible to this disease are mainly children between the ages of 5 and 15 years old, rarely with children aged 3 years or younger and adults. The child is at greatest risk of getting sick from contact with people who already have strep throat.
Children who have had strep throat and have shown clinical signs are often very contagious, so parents should keep these children at home, not at school or public places. plus until the fever is gone or after 1 day of using the drug to avoid spreading the disease to the community.

To diagnose a group A streptococcus infection, it is necessary to rely on functional symptoms such as high fever 40°C, sore throat, headache, nausea... and physical examination reveals white, dirty pus in the throat. Location of slit and cavity of tonsils on both sides, palpable lymph nodes under the jaw on both sides with high mobility, pain when pressing.
Besides, the patient needs to be done with subclinical techniques such as:
Total analysis of peripheral blood cells shows that the polymorphonuclear leukocyte index is elevated; Test for group A streptococcus by taking a sample of throat mucus, fresh or cultured to find group A hemolytic streptococci. In addition, quantification of anti-streptococcal antibodies in the blood through the slowly increasing and intermittently increasing ALSO reaction contributes to the diagnosis of the disease.

When a patient has been infected with group A streptococcus bacteria, the method to treat group A strep is usually to disinfect the throat with physiological saline combined with the use of drugs.

For the disinfection, the patient can suck, gargle with physiological saline daily. Or you can use a nebulizer as prescribed by the doctor with menthol, antibiotics, soluble anti-inflammatory drugs.
For medical treatment with drugs, the patient will be given antibiotics to reduce complications as well as prevent the risk of spreading the disease to those around. However, it should be noted that not 100% of patients with sore throat use antibiotics, but often these diseases will go away automatically, so it is necessary to go to medical facilities to be diagnosed and prescribed drugs. suitable. For patients who experience antibiotic resistance, a vaccine approach is needed to address the condition.
Prevention is also extremely important. Everyone needs to wash their hands thoroughly and follow proper procedures to prevent infection, especially after coughing and sneezing. When coughing or sneezing, pay attention to cover your nose and mouth. In addition, dressing wounds and ulcers should also be done regularly to prevent the spread of bacteria.
When children have been infected with group A strep, parents should let them rest at home and avoid going out until they have taken antibiotics for 24 hours.
Thus, it is necessary to treat group A streptococcal infections at an early stage because when this infection is invasive, the treatment of group A streptococcus faces many difficulties, as well as potentially dangerous dangers. to human life is very high. In addition, group A streptococcus infections, if treated promptly, will reduce the risk of serious illness as well as limit the possibility of spreading to the community.
References: bphc.org; occhd.org