Sepsis and Group A Streptococcus

Dear Colleagues,

Sepsis, defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, is the major cause of mortality from any infectious disease worldwide. In 2005, the WHO reported a global estimate of 18.1 million cases of severe Streptococcus pyogenes (GPOS) disease, with 1.78 million new cases of severe disease and 517,000 deaths per year. Group A streptococci (GAS) not only cause superficial diseases, but they have also the capacity to breach epithelial barriers and cause a variety of invasive diseases that lead to the death of 8 to 23% of patients with GAS invasive disease within 7 days of infection. The 3–6 hours after the clinical suspicion is critical for thr establishment of therapeutic measures that improve prognosis and the keystone of sepsis management is timely administration of active microbials. Under routine clinical praxis, patients with suspected sepsis are immediately screened for biomarkers and blood culture is drawn.

Epidemiological analyses increase general awareness and knowledge of infectious diseases, and molecular biological methods contribute to the identification of pathogenicity and virulence factors in causative agents, as well as to the elucidation of risk factors for the onset and development of infection in patients. Reducing mortality due to infections is a global public health priority. Streptococcal infections are highly contagious. Transmission most often happens from person to person, either by the droplet route or direct contact and, rarely, through contaminated food, leading to outbreaks of the disease. With a few exceptions, streptococcal infections occur sporadically, although outbreaks of invasive infections caused by certain clones of S. pyogenes have been described, such as in Israel. Most streptococcal infections are mild or self-healing, However, in the last few years, there has been an increasing incidence of streptococcal infections in both children and adults worldwide, with an increase in invasive forms of infections.

For this Special Issue, we invite you to send original or review papers on aspects of streptococcal infections with a focus on rapid diagnosis and appropriate therapy.

Dr. Vaclava Adamkova
Dr. Helena Brodská
Guest Editors

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• streptococcus pyogenes
• invasive infections
• bacteriaemia
• sepsis
• biomarkers
• antimicrobial resistance
• pathogenesis
• virulence factors