An invasive Group A Strep infection (iGAS) can lead to life-threatening illness. This could include septicaemia (blood poisoning), puerperal fever (postpartum infection), necrotising fasciitis (also known as flesh-eating bacteria), or toxic shock syndrome, potentially leading to organ failure. Young children, people over 65, and women during and shortly after childbirth have a higher risk of serious illness. These severe infections involving streptococcal bacteria have a high mortality rate: about 10% of iGAS patients die.

Updated policy for antibiotic use

Family members of an iGAS patient are more than 200 times more likely to become ill, compared to others. In the past, antibiotics were only offered to family members of patients with the most severe forms of iGAS. Specifically, this policy applied to patients who had necrotising fasciitis and toxic shock syndrome. In response to the significant increase in reported cases of iGAS after the coronavirus measures were discontinued, the policy has been updated. Since then, antibiotics have been offered to all family members of everyone with iGAS.

Risk now five times lower

The risk that a patient’s family member would also become ill dropped by more than 80%.  This means that the risk  is now five times lower under the new policy. Even so, the risk of iGAS infection for patients’ family members is still more than 70 times higher than for the general population. This shows how important it is to offer extra protection to this at-risk group.

Minimal impact on total number of iGAS infections in the Netherlands

The new policy has minimal impact on the total number of iGAS infections in the Netherlands. This is because most infections are not caused by direct contact with another patient. Using antibiotics to prevent these types of infections is only useful in certain situations, such as within families that already have an iGAS patient.