Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as group A streptococcus,is the cause of purulent pharyngitis and pyoderma, occasionallycomplicated by scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, and glomerulonephritis a scenario familiar to every medical student. Less frequently,group A streptococcus causes deep-tissue infection, bacteremia,and sepsis with vascular collapse and organ failure, a syndromeknown as the streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. M protein,a constituent of the streptococcal cell wall, has been knownfor half a century to be a virulence factor of group A streptococcus,both because it induces a host immune response that contributesto the immunologic complications of streptococcal . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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From the Program in Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Defense, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco.
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