One month into 2024, New Brunswick is already halfway to last year’s total number of deaths from severe Group A strep infections, according to the province’s acting chief medical officer of health.
New Brunswick has recorded five deaths from invasive Group A streptococcal infections in January, compared to 10 in all of last year, said Dr. Yves Léger.
Among them was Dan Wetmore, 49, of Moncton, who died on Jan. 19, after being sick for more than a week. It started with a sore throat and went on to include tiredness, body aches and vomiting, his widow Kim Wetmore told CBC.
He thought it was just the flu, she said, but then he started to get worse. He called 911 and was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he died later that day, said Wetmore, who is urging people to go to the hospital or get tested if they’ve got symptoms of strep A.
N.B. fatality rate nearly double national figure
Invasive Group A streptococcal disease happens when the common bacteria that can cause a variety of common illnesses — such as strep throat, scarlet fever and skin infections — spreads into sterile parts of the body, such as the bloodstream or the liquid around the brain, or into soft tissue. It can cause life-threatening conditions, such as toxic shock syndrome, the rapidly worsening symptoms from failure of many different organs, and necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as flesh-eating disease.
New Brunswick’s fatality rate has been nearly double that this month, with five deaths out of 27 confirmed cases, as of Jan. 26, or 18.5 per cent.
Province keeping close eye on Strep A numbers: Dr. Yves Léger
New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health says the province is already halfway to last year’s total number of deaths from the infection.
It’s also about double the province’s fatality rate in 2023, when 10 out of 107 confirmed New Brunswick cases died, or nine per cent.
The Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request to provide the ages of the people who have died but of the two deaths reported earlier this month, one was a child under the age of nine and the other was a person aged 10 to 59.
“It certainly is something that we are watching very closely,” said Léger.
It’s important to pay attention to symptoms, and to see a health-care provider if an illness persists, or gets worse, he said.
Symptoms of invasive Group A strep vary depending on the type of infection, but can include high fever; severe pain, swelling and redness of the affected area; dizziness and confusion; widespread red rash; and nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
The Department of Health has no plans to offer rapid home tests, said Léger.
“We feel that there are a number of areas where people can access testing and treatment,” he said, citing family physicians, nurse practitioners, after-hours clinics or emergency departments as examples.
Anyone who tests positive for strep A will need to be prescribed antibiotics, said Léger.
Seeking medical attention early in the course of an infection “can ensure rapid treatment, which can help prevent more severe outcomes,” noted department spokesperson Sean Hatchard.
When to seek help
Léger recommends people consider getting assessed by a health-care provider if they’re “very ill” and “going downhill really fast.”
A fever that lasts for more than three days should also trigger a visit. “Or if it goes away and then it comes back, or you’re feeling better and you again feel worse, those are signs that something’s not right,” he said.
Other concerning signs include difficulty breathing, blue lips, if a person is very sleepy or having a hard time waking up or is confused.
In addition, any signs of the skin infection, such as if an area is very red, painful, swollen, or has fluid draining from it, should also be seen by a clinician, said Léger.
His advice to parents is to follow their instincts.
“As a parent, you typically know best. You know how your child usually behaves and how they respond. And if you feel that something’s off, you know, follow your gut, go see someone, have that assessment.”
Who gets it and how?
Anyone can develop invasive Group A strep infections, but it occurs at higher rates in younger children and adults aged 65 and older, as well as in those with chronic underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer or HIV, and those who use injection drugs, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The bacteria spreads from person to person through close contact with secretions from the nose or throat of an infected person, such as kissing, or through contact with infected wounds or sores on the skin.
There is no vaccine for invasive Group A strep available, but it’s important to get vaccinated against other viruses, such as COVID-19, the flu, and chickenpox, to limit the likelihood of serious infection, said Léger.
“We know that recent viral infections … does increase the risk of Group A strep. So if you’re up to date with your vaccines that can help,” he said.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has said the increase in severe Group A infections may be due to an increase in the circulation of the less serious ones, following a period of reduced incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic, noted Hatchard.
How to reduce your risk
To reduce your risk of being infected by Group A strep, Léger recommends many of the same protective measures as for other respiratory viruses, such as COVID-19 and the flu. These include wearing a well-fitted mask in public indoor spaces, staying home if you’re ill, and washing your hands regularly.
You should also avoid contact with other people’s saliva and respiratory secretions, he said. “So you know, not sharing things like straws, cups, utensils or cigarettes.”
People with cuts or wounds should be careful to keep those clean and covered.
Anyone concerned about symptoms or invasive Group A strep infections should consult with their primary care provider, call Tele-Care 811 to speak with a registered nurse, visit an after-hours clinic, contact eVisitNB, or visit their local emergency department.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.
There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.
The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.
Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.
Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.
“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.
But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.
That includes his own teenage daughter.
“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.
It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.
“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”
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AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
How a sperm and egg fuse together has long been a mystery.
New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.
“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.
Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.
It wasn’t previously known how the proteins “worked together as a team in order to allow sperm and egg to recognize each other,” Pauli said.
Scientists still don’t know how the sperm actually gets inside the egg after it attaches and hope to delve into that next.
Eventually, Pauli said, such work could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods.
The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives in particular, said David Greenstein, a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.
The latest study “also underscores the importance of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry,” he said in an email.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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