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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995                   TAG: 9502030080
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEADLY BACTERIA STRIKE AGAIN IN ROCKINGHAM

The infection developed Monday, and the woman is hospitalized, according to Dr. Suzanne Jenkins, assistant state epidemiologist.

The patient ``has a concurrent condition that has been associated with invasive group A streptococcal infection,'' Jenkins said. The infection is in her bloodstream.

The cluster of serious strep infection cases has occurred since early December in three counties - Rockbridge, Augusta and Rockingham. The region normally would expect to have no more than nine such cases in a year, health officials have said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta sent two investigators to the area because of the high death rate in the outbreak. Five of those infected have died.

Epidemiologists with the CDC and the state Department of Health are testing the victims' relatives and randomly selected neighbors to learn more about the disease, particularly why some germ carriers never get sick while others become deathly ill.

Health officials don't believe there's a common source for the infections, Jenkins said, but rather that a virulent strain of the group A streptococcal bacteria may be around.

Jenkins also said two cases from other parts of the state have been reported to the Health Department since the recent widespread publicity about the Shenandoah Valley cases. She said specimens from those cases have been sent to the CDC for identification of the strain or strains of the bacteria. She did not say where those cases occurred.

Five of the people in the Shenandoah Valley cluster of cases had the same strain of the germ, a sixth case had a different strain, and studies are continuing on the others.

The severe infections that the bacteria can cause include septicemia, which is a bloodstream infection; a toxic shock syndrome involving organ damage and rapid drop in blood pressure; and necrotizing fasciitis, in which bacterial substances destroy fat and muscle tissue.