Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990                   TAG: 9005180228
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DANGEROUS BACTERIA MAY BE SPREADING, RESEARCHERS SAY

The type of bacteria, group A streptococcus, causes the pneumonia that killed Henson as well as a spectrum of other diseases, said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, an epidemiologist with CDC.

The disorders range from such relatively mild ailments as impetigo, a skin infection, to potentially lethal diseases such as pneumonia, rheumatic fever, scarlet fever, a severe blood disease and a related disease, toxic streptococcal syndrome.

Schwartz and other researchers said that recent studies suggest that the more serious types of group A streptococcal infections may be increasing. At the same time, the bacteria behind the disorders may be becoming even more lethal.

The mounting potency of the bacteria could explain why Henson succumbed so quickly to his pneumonia, an uncommon type of lung infection that is about 1 percent of all pneumonias.

"Back in the old days, we were concerned about group A strep, but in the past 50 years the rate of severe group A infections had declined," said Schwartz. "Now there are indications that they may be becoming more common."

Schwartz and other physicians said the rate of severe group A infections was still very low overall and there was no need for wide concern.

Schwartz also stressed that the bacteria was extremely vulnerable to penicillin.

But Schwartz and other researchers said that they were anxious to solve the mystery of why the pathogen seemed to be growing stronger and more prevalent.

He said that a recent study in Denver of the incidence of bacteremia, the bloodstream disease caused by group A streptococcus, showed a rate of four to five cases per 100,000 people. Previously, the incidence had been so low that the bacteria causing it was not even tracked anywhere, he said.

More frightening, the death rate from the blood disease was 30 percent, which Schwartz called "very high."

The findings were reported in a recent issue of the Disease Control Centers' weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report.

But Dr. Richard Hoffman, state epidemiologist at the Colorado Department of Health in Denver, pointed out that many details of the epidemiology of the disease remained unclear.

"We can't be sure if we're really seeing more of this type of infection, or whether some of the apparent increase may be due to the heightened recognition of it," he said.