#streptococcal

[ricisidro]

The Philippines has also recorded cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS), a deadly bacterial infection that is currently rising in Japan, infectious diseases expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said Thursday.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/911420/solante-deadly-bacterial-infection-in-japan-already-recorded-in-ph/story/

What is STSS?

#InfectiousDiseases

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/cases-of-this-deadly-bacterial-infection-are-rising-in-japan-experts-want-to-know-why

[group-call]

yes you support disabled and mentally ill people with nasty, mean, ugly, or otherwise "bad" symptoms. but are you normal about physically chronically ill people who's physical condition directly impacts their behavior and psychiatric condition? are you normal about physically chronically ill people who literally cannot repress, hold back, or regulate aggression, mean statements, or anger/rage episodes? are you normal about physically chronically ill people who legitimately cannot regulate any strong emotion whatsoever? are you normal about physically chronically ill people who have "bad" behaviors that would be unreasonable, cruel and unfair to "punish" because it's the almost equivalent to punishing them for something like having pain? are you normal about people like us? we exist.

THIS IS ABOUT PHYSICAL, CHRONIC ILLNESS, NOT SOLELY MENTAL ILLNESS. IF WE SEE YOU DERAILING MY POST YOU WILL EXPLODE INTO A TRILLION PIECES.

[nightmaretour]

Sometimes I think about the fact that the virus that is thought to have caused the illness that nearly killed me (if that is the case) is still in my brain, it will always be in my brain until the moment I die. Dormant and in small numbers yes, but it's there, and according to several studies, likely to still be causing problems up there.

But the part that scares me most is that if my immune system fucks it up, it could very much stop being dormant.

[shu-of-the-wind]

there are a lot of things that i can't forgive disney for but one of them is quite genuinely i think that the deal to sell the muppets to disney contributed to jim henson's death and i stand by that

[cheolhub]

it has been 6 years since you last updated I miss you ☹️ (it has only been 7 days) 😓

im SORRYYY, i was really just so exhausted and then i got strep throat (bc someone’s ***** *** ch*ld decided to get me sick for the 3rd time this month) but im ok now 🥲 i missed u

[it-is-only-a-novel]

Neurodivergent: a list

A list of those who are included under the "neurodivergent" label.

Applied Neurodiversity

Dyscalculia

Dysgraphia

Dyslexia

Dysnomia

Dyspraxia

Dissociative disorders

Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DpDr)

Dissociative amnesia

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD)

Unspecified dissociative disorder

Eating disorders:

Anorexia nervosa

Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)

Binge-eating disorder

Bullimia nervosa

Pica

Mental illnesses:

Anxiety

Delusional disorder

Depression

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Personality Disorders:

Cluster A:

Paranoid personality disorder

Schizoid personality disorder

Schizotypal personality disorder

Cluster B:

Antisocial personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD)

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)

Cluster C:

Avoidant personality disorder

Dependent personality disorder

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Other:

Personality change due to another medical condition

Personality disorder not otherwise specified (PD-NOS)

personality disorder trait specified (PD-TS)

Tic disorder

Chronic motor or vocal tic disorder

Tourette syndrome

Transient tic disorder

other

Acquired Brain Injuries (ABI)

Angelmans Syndrome

Auditory processing disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Body integrity identity disorder (BIID)

Bipolar disorder

Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPDR)

Down syndrome

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)

Fragile X syndrome

Hyperlexia

Intellectual disability

Irlen Syndrome

Meares-Irlen Syndrome

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Obsessive love disorder (OLD)

Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS)

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS)

Prosopagnosia

Savant Syndrome

Schizophrenia

Synesthesia

Williams Syndrome/Williams Beuren Syndrome

This is by no means a full list.

If you: see that I'm missing something, or

want me to rephrase something, or

have a resource to share, or

have a suggestion for organizing the list

please let me know in the comments/rebloggs.

I'm autistic and I love making lists. I also hope it may help spread awareness about neurodivergent people!

I am not an expert. But I do believe that we should be careful to include people in the neurodivergent umbrella. We are stronger together.

Updated: 9/2/24

[macgyvermedical]

Magic Bullets: The Antibiotic Story

The year was 1907 and a Dr. Alfred Bertheim was trying to make arsenic less toxic to humans.

Why? Because in addition to killing humans, arsenic also kills trypanosomes- single-celled protozoa that cause the life-threatening infection trypanosomiasis. By creating a version of arsenic that still killed the protozoa, but not the human they infected, Dr. Bertheim could create a drug to treat the disease*.

This was not a fully new idea. About 50 years earlier, a drug called Atoxyl had been created in France. About 40 times less toxic than pure arsenic, it had been shown to not only successfully treat trypanosomiasis, but also the equally devastating syphilis infection.

But 40 times less toxic than pure arsenic is still not great. About 2% of people treated even one time with the drug ended up blind, among a myriad of other side effects. It was a start, but not ideal.

And Dr. Bertheim (under the direction of better-known Dr. Paul Ehrlich) was setting out to change that.

And it just so happened that the sixth compound from the sixth group he tried did so. Known as "compound 606", the new Arsphenamine could treat trypanosomiasis, relapsing fever, and syphilis very effectively- and it didn't leave its takers dead or blind.

Most of the time, at least. See, arsphenamine, also known by the brand name salvarsan, was a pain in the ass to administer. It had to be dissolved in several hundred mililiters of water under a nitrogen atmosphere to prepare it for administration. If it touched air, it would rapidly react, causing toxic byproducts that could cause liver failure, severe skin rashes, and even death.

But both trypanosomiasis and syphilis were definitely going to kill you, so it was worth the risk.

And the seed had been planted, so to say. The idea of a chemical able to kill infection-causing agents without killing the host was a true possibility for the future of medicine.

And by 1912, Neosalvarsan, a drug somewhat less effective -but far easier to administer and with significantly fewer side effects- was on the market. Over the next decade, Neosalvarsan would be responsible for a massive drop in syphilis cases worldwide.

But neither of the drugs could treat deadly infections from staph or strep or the hundreds of other bacterial or viral infections that still had no cure in the 1910's and 1920's.

Then came the first of the heavy-hitters. Bayer was a dye company when it started, and in 1932, three and a half decades after switching mostly to pharmaceuticals, chemists at Bayer were testing the company's dyes for anti-infective properties. They went through thousands of trials, finally finding a dye that could kill streptococcal bacteria without killing a mouse host.

Pre-1930s, streptococcal disease was a major problem. It caused strep throat, cellulitis, scarlet fever, childbed (purpural) fever, some forms of toxic shock syndrome, impetigo, necrotizing fasciitis, rheumatic fever, and many others. The skin infections may have been at least somewhat treatable with a hot compress, but the rest were prone to cause blindness, deafness, loss of limbs, and for many, loss of life.

In 1936, sulfonamide antibiotics changed that. Protosil, the first of the sulfonamides, became available to treat many of the infections listed above. These would be used for wound infections throughout WWII. Unfortunately, they would also cause the untimely death of nearly 100 people via the Elixer Sulfanilamide tragedy.

Sulfanilamide was a similar drug to Prontosil and was safe and effective for treating strep infections. However, when mixed with diethylene glycol (now used as standard car antifreeze) to make it into a liquid suspension, it was deadly. See this letter from a doctor who had prescribed the liquid form of the medication, not knowing it was poison:

[to read more about the Elixer Sulfanilamide Disaster, see here]

Despite the sulfanilamide tragedy, the race was on for more antibiotics. Three years before they went on the market, researchers had found evidence of bacterial resistance to sulfonamides. What would happen when these new bacteria, that didn't die when exposed to the new wonder drug, made up so much of the bacterial population?

In 1942, the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston caused over 492 deaths and 130 injuries. The injured were among the first to receive a remarkable new drug called penicillin. The fire and the fate of the victims were publicized throughout the world, and penicillin became a household name overnight. But once again, even before it went on the market in 1943, just in time for the end of the Second World War, there was evidence of resistance.

But fortunately, the fire had been sparked. Over the next 30 years, many dozens of antibiotics would come into clinical use. If you've taken it, it probably came out between 1940 and 1970. Tetracycline, isoniazid, metronidazole, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, vancomycin, amoxicillin, and dozens more you've never heard of.

And then? Nothing.

Well, not completely nothing, there were a couple that came out in the 1980s and a few in the early 2000s. But nothing like that 30-year golden age.

But now we're running into problems due to drug resistance. About 1.27 million people die annually directly from antibiotic resistant infection, while antibiotic resistance contributes to about 4.95 million more deaths.

The good news is that the drugs that are being made today are directly targeting those antibiotic resistant infections. In fact, as I'm writing this, a new drug (Zosurabalpin) is being tested for a bacteria called Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, which up until now has had no antibiotic that works against it.

*as you may imagine for the time period, this was not necessarily a benevolent act. See, most of the reason Europeans wanted to treat trypanosomiasis in the first place was because they kept dying of it when they went to colonize Africa. And they wanted something that would give them a leg up on the people who were already there.

[killed-by-choice]

“Sadie Roe,” 24 (USA 2013)

“Sadie” died after undergoing a chemical abortion. Her death was counted in the FDA Adverse Event Summary for the mifepristone/misoprostol abortion regimen, but despite investigation, it is still unknown which of her complications caused her death.

Sadie was 24 and had no known health problems. On or about August 15, 2013, she underwent the abortion. She began to feel sick afterwards and went to a doctor, who prescribed an antibiotic. It is unknown what kind of infection the doctor had diagnosed.

On August 20, someone found Sadie’s dead body. An autopsy was conducted to try to find out how a young woman went from healthy to dead in five days.

The autopsy results came back with a mystery. Although traces of cannabinoids and ibuprofen (most likely Sadie’s attempt to treat her pain) were detected, both were so inconsequential that the toxicology report cleared her as negative. Neither drug was in a concentration that could have killed her. Many people had already died of sepsis caused by Clostridium bacteria, so tissue samples were sent to the CDC for testing. The samples came back negative for the species tested.

However, several life-threatening problems were found at Sadie’s autopsy. She had retained part of the placenta from the abortion, which is a serious complication that risks infection. Her organs were damaged; she suffered “acute visceral and pulmonary congestion and edema.” Microbiology testing had come back negative for the Clostridium strain that had been investigated, but after less than a day the cultures grew streptococcus viridans.

So which of these killed Sadie? The coroner initially listed “unspecified natural causes,” but the CDC analyzed her case and tried to determine what the cause of death was. They finally concluded that the cause of death was undetermined, but included her in the count of pregnant people who died after chemical abortion.

Years later, six doctors reviewed Sadie’s case. They found the confirmation of retained placenta, her symptoms and the Streptococcal species in her lab cultures to be indicative of sepsis and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Viridans group streptococci can cause life-threatening infections and had been reported to have antibiotic-resistant strains, so this is also consistent with the Azithromycin prescription.

While we still do not have a definite answer on the precise cause of Sadie’s death (and sadly, we may never be sure), it can be assumed beyond reasonable doubt that side effects of the abortion played a highly significant role.

Individual Case Safety Report number 9587011-03-00-01, Danco Laboratories, LLC. Office of Post-marketing Drug Risk Assessment, Food and Drug Administration.

https://www.fda.gov/media/154941/download

[detentiontrack]

what is PANDAS? /gq

This is a very long infodump but here’s my story!

It stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections! Basically when I was 10, I got a normal case of strep throat. The same kind that every kid gets in childhood. I got on antibiotics and felt better, but overnight (literally overnight. I was completely fine the night before and then it started February 22nd 2016) I started having SEVERE. OCD and anxiety symptoms. It was debilitating. I couldn’t eat, sleep, or function. I was having panic attacks, constant obsessions and compulsions, terrifying intrusive thoughts, and hallucinations. I also started developing tics. I was 10 and it happened overnight, so it wasn’t likely obsessive compulsive disorder or Tourette’s, especially because I didn’t have a family history of those things.

After multiple doctors, a nurse practitioner finally thought to test me for strep antibodies and it was positive. I got started on high dose antibiotics that destroyed my teeth and digestive system, but after 11 months I was still getting strep throat every other week, which would cause me to flare.

At 11, I got my tonsils out, and it helped a bit, but then I started losing function in other areas. At that point, it had spread to my entire brain and it turned into severe encephalitis. I had constant violent tics, debilitating mental illness symptoms, and I was losing the ability to walk and talk. The right side of my body was completely useless and the left side wasn’t much better. I couldn’t talk without a stutter, aphasia, and forgetting how to speak.

At age 12, I got my first bought of IVIG, which helped a little bit, but unfortunately we had shitty health insurance at the time and they wouldn’t cover any more even though I was getting worse by the day. At this point we didn’t know I had encephalitis, we thought I only had PANDAS and PANDAS wouldn’t cause that severe of a reaction on its own. So it was extremely scary. They were testing me for everything they knew, but encephalitis, especially in kids that young, wasn’t super well researched at the time. I had countless tests and everything was coming back “clean”.

Eventually, my mom and I went to every doctor in California that would see us. Even the ones not covered by insurance. At 12, since we saw every neurologist and rheumatologist that would see me in our state, we went to Arizona to see a PANDAS specialist. She recommended me a lot of herbal medications that kept me alive and helped a lot, but since she was in a different state, she couldn’t prescribe any actual medication. But those herbal medications kept me going long enough. That’s when we found out I also had fibromyalgia and my thyroid had failed as a side effect of the encephalitis.

When I was 13, I saw a doctor who diagnosed me with POTS, prescribed me POTS medication, and did a lot of tests to try and find out WHY I was losing the ability to walk and talk. She did a nerve conduction test, MRIs, CTs, and a test where they removed huge chunks of my flesh and tested the nerves (idk what it was called?) however there was no baseline for someone my age for any of the things she was testing for, so we only had a set baseline for if things got worse.

When I was 13, almost 14, I couldn’t walk or stand without a cane, even with a cane I couldn’t walk for very long, and I was very nearly at the point where I needed a wheelchair full time. My speech and tics were terrible, I remember barely even being able to think or process what was happening because the brain inflammation was so severe. I FINALLY got in with a rheumatologist at UCLA who specialized in PANDAS, and he finally was able to get insurance to pay for a years worth of IVIG.

I was on high dose IVIG for a year, and it saved my life. Very slowly, I got better. My OCD stopped, I could talk again, my tics stopped, and I very slowly got back feeling in my body. I couldn’t afford speech therapy or physical therapy at the time, so I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. 5 years later, I have 100% feeling and function in my right arm, and I can feel most of my right leg, except for my foot and random patches on my thigh and calf. I talk fine most of the time, but if I’m tired, I’ll start slurring my words and occasionally words for things will just. Slip out of my brain and I can’t remember them so I have to improvise. (Yesterday the word for pencil disappeared from my brain so I asked my sister for “the thing that’s like a pen but is gray and you can erase it”)

[ricisidro]

Japan's health ministry says travellers need not worry about the ‘flesh eating’ infection outbreak but it remains unclear how widespread the illness is, or why it seems to be spreading so quickly.

#StreptococcalToxicShockSyndrome

#STSS #Japan

https://sc.mp/icb9u?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=3258293&utm_medium=share_widget via @scmpnews

[willowreader]

My god, will people ever realize what COVID is doing.

"He believes the reclassification of Covid-19 was the most important factor behind the increase in streptococcus pyogenes infections. This, he added, had led more people to abandon basic measures to prevent infections, such as regular hand disinfection.

“In my opinion, over 50% Japanese people have been infected by Sars-CoV-2 [the virus that causes Covid-19],” Kikuchi tells the Guardian. “People’s immunological status after recovering from Covid-19 might alter their susceptibility to some microorganisms. We need to clarify the infection cycle of severe invasive streptococcal pyogenes diseases and get them under control immediately.”

I know 2 people who got very sick with Strep A. One is still recovering.

[group-call]

acronym meanings: pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections, pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcus, basal ganglia encephalitis, autoimmune encephalopathy/encephalitis

asking because we're curious how many people are aware/have heard of our condition, since it seems to be not very common for people to. reblog for sample size! -⚠️ steven

[scotianostra]

On 28th September 1928 Alexander Fleming, a Scottish researcher discovered penicillin.

Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mould had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mould, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci. Staphylococcus is a bacteria that can be found normally in the nose and on the skin.

An article published by Fleming in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929 reads, “The staphylococcus colonies became transparent and were obviously undergoing lysis … the broth in which the mould had been grown at room temperature for one to two weeks had acquired marked inhibitory, bactericidal and bacteriolytic properties to many of the more common pathogenic bacteria.”

Published reports credit Fleming as saying: “One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on Sept. 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that was exactly what I did.”

Though Fleming stopped studying penicillin in 1931, his research was continued and finished by Howard Flory and Ernst Chain, researchers at University of Oxford who are credited with the development of penicillin for use as a medicine in mice.

Penicillin made a difference during the first half of the 20th century. The first patient was successfully treated for streptococcal septicaemia in the United States in 1942. However, supply was limited and demand was high in the early days of penicillin.

Penicillin helped reduce the number of deaths and amputations of troops during World War II. According to records, there were only 400 million units of penicillin available during the first five months of 1943; by the time World War II ended, U.S. companies were making 650 billion units a month.

To date, penicillin has become the most widely used antibiotic in the world.

[kingdrawcse]

Chemistry Behind Bacterial Disease

🔬In the early 20th century, bacterial diseases were a death sentence! But in 1932, Gerhard Domagk discovered the power of prontosil, a colorful azo dye, to treat deadly streptococcal infections. He saved his daughter's life and won the Nobel Prize in 1939🏆

Prontosil is an antibacterial drug of the sulfonamide group. It has a relatively broad effect against gram-positive cocci but not against enterobacteria.