Duration and prognosis
Streptococcal sepsis is a very fast and serious disease. If therapy is not started within a few hours, the infection spreads to the entire body and begins to damage individual organs. Already after 24 hours without treatment the risk of death increases to about 25%.
If the streptococcal sepsis has progressed to a severe sepsis with organ damage, only about half of those affected survive this disease. If septic shock occurs, the circulation fails due to the organ damage. Approximately 60% of the affected persons die as a result.
Course of disease
Streptococcal sepsis usually begins with a simple streptococcal infection. In the course of the disease, the immune response is dysregulated and the entire body suddenly begins to respond to the infection. If a therapy is already initiated at this point, organ involvement can often be prevented. However, if sepsis is not recognized until later, it usually leads to a very unstable circulation and subsequently to failure or malfunction of affected organs.
How contagious is this?
Streptococcal sepsis is not contagious in itself, but streptococci can be transmitted to other people. For example, if the source of infection is in the lungs, a droplet infection (e.g. coughing) can lead to other people being infected. Normally, the immune system of an infected person should be strong enough to fight the bacteria, so that sepsis does not usually occur. However, there is an increased risk in people with risk factors (for example, old age or a weak immune system).
Streptococcal sepsis in a baby
Streptococci are bacteria that are found in the genital tract of about 25% of pregnant mothers and can therefore be transmitted to the newborn at birth. However, only 0.05% of newborns subsequently develop streptococcal sepsis. If this disease occurs, however, the babies are particularly at risk due to their not yet well developed immune system. An early and strong therapy can be life-saving.
All articles in this series:
