Scarlet fever has made a re-emergence in recent years due to acquiring a toxin that allows them to better colonise their hosts:
“These supercharged bacterial clones have been causing our modern scarlet fever outbreaks.
“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.”
For the time being, scarlet fever outbreaks have been dampened, largely due to public health policy measures introduced to control COVID-19.
“This year COVID-19 social distancing has kept scarlet fever outbreaks in check for now,” Professor Walker said.
“And the disease’s main target—children—have been at school less and also spending far less time in other large groups.
“But when social distancing eventually is relaxed, scarlet fever is likely to come back.
“We need to continue this research to improve diagnosis and to better manage these epidemics.
“Just like COVID-19, ultimately a vaccine will be critical for eradicating scarlet fever—one of history’s most pervasive and deadly childhood diseases.”
Source: Medical Express
