Síndrome de schock tóxico por streptococcus B-hemolítico grupo A: estudio de la relación clonal entre un caso y sus contactos / Toxic shock syndrome: clonal relatedness among group A streptococcus isolates from a case and its contacts

RESUMO

Group A Streptococcal infections have increased in severity and frequency worldwide. We report a female patient that was admitted by Group A Streptococal lethal toxic shock syndrome due to pharyngitis as the primary focus and without cutaneous involvement. Streptococcus pyogenes was isolated from blood cultures and case definition fulfilled standard recommendations. Epidemiological studies among family members showed that two children (aged 5 and 12 years) harbored the same strain in their pharynxes as confirmed by arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) using primers ERIC and Pn-1. Control strains were included in the analysis. None of three health care workers involved in intubation and laryngoscopic procedures with the patient carried S pyogenes. AP-PCR appears to be a useful and rapid procedure to demonstrate clonal relatedness among S pyogenes strains