Wisconsin Health Officials Concerned Over Jump In Group A Strep Cases

WISCONSIN — Cases of invasive group A strep infections are still making people sick in Wisconsin and other parts of the country, public health officials warned Wednesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its preliminary 2023 data shows group A strep infections are occurring at rates above those seen before the pandemic.

In Wisconsin, state health officials told Patch that Group A cases are provisional and remain under review, but that as of this week, 171 cases of the infections have been reported across the state in 2023. A total of 25 of those cases have involved pediatric patients and one young person is believed to have died from Group A strep, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Health said on Wednesday.

During 2022, the state saw 226 iGAS cases reported, which the spokeswoman said is in line with our annual average. However, the state saw a much lower number of cases during the COVID pandemic. Last year, there were a total of 32 pediatric cases with three pediatric deaths — all of which took place in the final month of the year, health officials said.

"A kind of routine respiratory viral illness can very quickly become much more serious when a bacterial component jumps in. So people do need to be concerned about this," Dr. James Conway, pediatric infectious disease physician at UW Health Kids in Madison said in December when the state experienced the three pediatric deaths

The bacteria is commonly carried by people in their noses and throats or on the skin, but in its invasive form, it can invade parts of the body that are normally free from germs. This more severe type of strep is usually seen in children, but the CDC said some areas of the country are seeing it more often in adults, including those 65 and older.

Like other contagious illnesses, invasive group Strep A cases dropped during the social distancing of the pandemic, falling to the lowest number of cases on record since 1997 among school-aged kids.

Mild and moderate strep infections are usually treated with amoxicillin, which is in short supply. Alternative therapies are available. Invasive group A strep roared back last year amid the shortage of drugs to treat it, although there’s no data link as yet between those developments, the CDC said.

A week after the CDC’s December warning of an uptick in cases, the World Health Organization reported invasive Group A infections were also increasing in several other countries.
Invasive group strep A is both dangerous and rare, with anywhere between 14,000 and 25,000 illnesses a year in the United States. The fatality rate is around 1,500 to 2,300 people a year, according to the CDC.

Any strep A case warrants a trip to the doctor. Typical symptoms include fever, sore throat, and difficulty swallowing.

Parents and caregivers should also keep an eye out for symptoms of toxic shock syndrome— fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea, and vomiting — and the so-called “flesh-eating” disease, necrotizing fasciitis — a fast-spreading swollen area on the skin, severe pain and fever, along with blisters, changes in skin color or pus at the infected area.