Scarlet fever making a comeback
An international study led by University of Queensland (UQ) researchers has tracked the re-emergence of a childhood disease which had largely disappeared over the past 100 years.
Researchers at UQ’s Australian Infectious Diseases Centre have used genome sequencing techniques to investigate a rise in the incidence of scarlet fever-causing bacteria and an increasing resistance to antibiotics.
UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences researcher Professor Mark Walker said the disease had re-emerged in parts of Asia and the United Kingdom.
Nouri L. Ben Zakour, Mark R. Davies, Yuanhai You, Jonathan H. K. Chen, Brian M. Forde, Mitchell Stanton-Cook, Ruifu Yang, Yujun Cui, Timothy C. Barnett, Carola Venturini, Cheryl-lynn Y. Ong, Herman Tse, Gordon Dougan, Jianzhong Zhang, Kwok-Yung Yuen, Scott A. Beatson, Mark J. Walker. Transfer of scarlet fever-associated elements into the group A Streptococcus M1T1 clone. Scientific Reports, 2015; 5: 15877 DOI: 10.1038/srep15877
Scanning electron micrograph of Group A Streptococcus bacteria on primary human neutrophil. Credit: NIAID
