What to know
- Presentation Day/Time: Friday, April 25, 10:55 am–12:20 pm
- Presenter: Veena Ramachandran, MD, MPH, EIS officer assigned to the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Division of Bacterial Diseases
What did we do?
- We used CDC’s Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs), a multistate population- and laboratory-based surveillance system, to assess changes in pediatric invasive group A Streptococcus (GAS) incidence and clinical presentation, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What did we find?
- During 2004-2022, in total 2,524 pediatric invasive GAS cases were identified.
- Compared with expected incidence, observed iGAS incidence was 52%, 74%, and 27% lower in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively. Observed incidence in November and December 2022 exceeded expected incidence by 117%.
- Pneumonia incidence decreased more than the other clinical syndromes during 2004–2019 and 2021 and increased more than the other syndromes during 2021 and 2022.
Why does it matter?
- Descriptions of changes in pediatric iGAS infections during the COVID-19 pandemic are limited.
- Nonpharmaceutical interventions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to help mitigate viral transmission may have helped decrease transmission of invasive GAS. Following the relaxation of these interventions, cases of invasive GAS rapidly increased.
- The continued prevalence and recent rapid rise of invasive GAS highlights the need to accelerate development of preventive strategies to stem further increases in invasive GAS disease.
***This presentation has updated data that will be shared at the EIS Conference.
Abstract Category: Group A Strep