Antigen analysis of group A streptococcus strain, "Matsuyama 2166", which had been typed as T12-28 (by the T-agglutination method), MNT (nontypeable by the M-precipitation method) using conventional typing sera was examined by the precipitation and precipitation absorption technique. The prevalence of group A streptococci, typed under the name "Matsuyama 2166" was also investigated. The results were as follows: 1) The strain "Matsuyama 2166" is OF (Opacity Factor) (+) and its serological components consist of M "Matsuyama 2166" antigen, which is unique in our collection of M-types, and T28 antigen as a major antigen along with T12 as a minor. 2) Out of the group A streptococci typed as MNT, 96.6% of the streptococci were types as T12-28 and 96.5% of T28 by conventional typing sera were strains to be typed as M "Matsuyama 2166" using the newly prepared M "Matsuyama 2166" typing serum, suggesting the great advantage to M-typing rate of T28 strains. 3) Group A streptococcus M "Matsuyama 2166" was also found in isolates from Thailand or Malaysia. It is interesting that T-types found in those isolates seems to be a little different from the T-types isolated in Japan. These results showed that there was the difficult problem when we did the speculation of M-type from the result of T-type.
Pharyngeal micro-organisms of 131 Australian and Malaysian children and adults were compared by analysis of aerobic culture of throat swab specimens. Enteric Gram-negative bacilli were commonly isolated in small numbers from Malaysian adults whether they had sore throats (28%) or not (36%), but were detected in only 9% of Australian adults without sore throats and in only 12% and 4% of Malaysian children with and without sore throats respectively. In other respects microbiological findings were similar in the different groups of subjects studied. It is concluded that the pharyngeal carriage rate of enteric Gram-negative bacilli may differ substantially between different groups of normal individuals. Our findings also suggest that these micro-organisms do not have a pathogenic role in pharyngitis.
T-agglutination patterns of 190 strains of group A streptococci isolated between January 1989 and December 1993 from body fluids (10), throat culture (56), pus (51) and skin lesions (73) were determined. Mucoid colonial morphology was exhibited by 6.3% (12/190) of the strains on initial isolation. Type T-5,11,27,44 comprised 23.7%, followed by T-1,3,13,B3264 (11.1%), T-4,6 (8.4%) and T-8,25, Imp 19 (7.9%). About 42% (80/190) strains could not be characterized by T agglutination pattern. T-typing of 71 selected strains at WHO Collaborating Center, Minneapolis yielded similar results. Nineteen selected strains were further characterized by M-typing; only three strains were M-typeable. These strains were isolated from throat (M1), sputum (M5) and pus (M12). About 68% (48/71) isolates produced serum opacity factor. These data support the existence of as yet uncharacterized group A streptococcal serotypes in this region.
Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome is a serious health problem in developed and developing countries. We here report a case of severe protracted disease after a minor skin infection in a young traveler returning from West Malaysia which was caused by an unusual emm-type strain harboring speG and smeZ superantigen genes.