Lethal acute amigdalitis caused by Streptococcus pyogenes

Abstract

Streptococcus pyogenes is a gram positive bacterium that constitutes the main cause of pharyngoamigdalitis in adults andchildren. Acute streptococcal amigdalitis cases are more frequent at cold times of the year, being contagious through direct contactwith secretions of the respiratory tract. Frequently they are controllable. However, from the primary oropharyngeal focus of infection,it may affect different organs and tissues of the organism, causing serious suppurative complications. The present study aimed to describetwo clinical cases of patients with acute amigdalitis who developed septicemia and died: one of the patients was a child and theother an adult. In both cases, S. pyogenes was isolated in blood culture and the patients came to die due to septicemia. Although directassociation between the cases cannot be made, one may conclude that bacterial oropharyngeal infections must be treated as earlier aspossible and that they require us to consider the aggressive potential of some lineages of S. pyogenes in cases that last more than fivedays or present an atypical clinical evolution.