{"id":82760,"date":"2020-10-06T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/supercharged-clones-spark-scarlet-fevers-re-emergence\/"},"modified":"2020-10-06T12:00:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T09:00:02","slug":"supercharged-clones-spark-scarlet-fevers-re-emergence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/supercharged-clones-spark-scarlet-fevers-re-emergence\/","title":{"rendered":"#Supercharged ‘clones’ spark scarlet fever’s re-emergence"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Supercharged ‘clones’ spark scarlet fever’s re-emergence<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Supercharged
\n The University of Queensland’s Dr Stephan Brouwer is helping reveal why scarlet fever is making a comeback. Credit: The University of Queensland
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A University of Queensland-led team of international researchers says supercharged “clones” of the bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes<\/i> are to blame for the resurgence of the disease, which has caused high death rates for centuries.\n <\/p>\n

UQ’s Dr. Stephan Brouwer said health authorities globally were surprised when an epidemic was detected in Asian countries in 2011.<\/p>\n

“The disease had mostly dissipated by the 1940s,” Dr. Brouwer said.<\/p>\n

“Like the virus that causes COVID-19, Streptococcus pyogenes<\/i> bacteria are usually spread by people coughing or sneezing, with symptoms including a sore throat, fever, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, and a characteristic scarlet-colored, red rash.<\/p>\n

“Scarlet fever commonly affects children, typically aged between two and 10 years.<\/p>\n

“After 2011, the global reach of the pandemic became evident with reports of a second outbreak in the UK, beginning in 2014, and we’ve now discovered outbreak isolates here in Australia.<\/p>\n

“This global re-emergence of scarlet fever has caused a more than five-fold increase in disease rate and more than 600,000 cases around the world.”<\/p>\n

Co-author Professor Mark Walker and the team found a variety of Streptococcus pyogenes<\/i> bacteria that had acquired “superantigen” toxins, forming new clones.<\/p>\n

“The toxins would have been transferred into the bacterium when it was infected by viruses that carried the toxin genes,” Professor Walker said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve shown that these acquired toxins allow Streptococcus pyogenes<\/i> to better colonize its host, which likely allows it to out-compete other strains.<\/p>\n

“These supercharged bacterial clones have been causing our modern scarlet fever outbreaks.<\/p>\n

“The research team then removed the toxin genes from the clones causing scarlet fever, and these modified ‘knock-out’ clones were found to be less able to colonize in an animal model of infection.”<\/p>\n

For the time being, scarlet fever outbreaks have been dampened, largely due to public health policy measures introduced to control COVID-19.<\/p>\n

“This year COVID-19 social<\/a> distancing has kept scarlet fever outbreaks in check for now,” Professor Walker said.<\/p>\n

“And the disease’s main target\u2014children\u2014have been at school less and also spending far less time in other large groups.<\/p>\n

“But when social distancing eventually is relaxed, scarlet fever is likely to come back.<\/p>\n

“We need to continue this research to improve diagnosis and to better manage these epidemics.<\/p>\n

“Just like COVID-19, ultimately a vaccine will be critical for eradicating scarlet fever\u2014one of history’s most pervasive and deadly childhood diseases.”<\/p>\n

The study has been published in Nature Communications<\/i>.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Scarlet fever making a comeback\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n More information:<\/strong>
\n Nature Communications<\/i> (2020). DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-020-18700-5<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n
\n Provided by
\n University of Queensland
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\n Citation<\/strong>:
\n Supercharged ‘clones’ spark scarlet fever’s re-emergence (2020, October 6)
\n retrieved 6 October 2020
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news<\/a>\/2020-10-supercharged-clones-scarlet-fever-re-emergence.html<\/p>\n

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