Rheumatic fever is caused by Group A Streptococcus and remains the leading cause of heart disease in children across the world. The disease is a bacterial mediated autoimmune response to the infection, leading to joint, skin, kidney, brain and heart pathology in children below the age of 21 years old.
Carapetis, Jonathan R., et al. "Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease." Nature reviews Disease primers 2.1 (2016): 1-24
The significant rise Group A Strep cases across the world points to a possible change in the upper airway immune response.
This may be linked to the associated risk of viral co-infections being seen in different parts of the world.
Group A Streptococcus is one of the few bacteria that trigger an interferon response. This could explain the association with this infection along with increased viral co-infections.
Could the mistakes of the pandemic now be a risk to our children?
The huge risk from Strep A for children