The manager of the “Victor Babeş” Hospital in Bucharest, Simin Aysel Florescu, signals a significant change in the patient profile in Romania: more and more people who work or have fought in high-risk areas contract tropical diseases, bringing a new challenge to the national medical system. What’s more, the bacteria would also be present in our country “meat eaters”, which infected 977 people in Japan.
“Flesh-eating” bacterium infects 977 Japanese -Photo Shutterstock
“We are beginning to align with the rest of the world in terms of imported pathology. We don’t have anymore just travel usually Romanians, who come with diseases acquired in various areas of the world, as we had until now. We are starting to have diseases brought by migrants, by those who work for us in the country and by those who are fighting in other territories at the moment and come back with diseases. And we probably start to have refugees who come with the pathology specific to the area they left, so all these things expand. We are very alert“, said Simin Aysel Florescu, on Tuesday evening, on Medika TV, according to News.ro.
At the “Victor Babeş” Hospital in Bucharest, there is a cabinet dedicated to people traveling to potentially endemic areas. Here people get information about vaccines and preventative treatments recommended for travel to those regions.
The “flesh-eating” bacterium, present in Romania
The manager of “Victor Babeş” Hospital, Simin Aysel Florescu, emphasizes that Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome (STSS), a rare disease caused by an aggressive bacterium known as “meat eaters”, recently observed in Japan, does not currently constitute a significant threat in Romania.
This condition can cause death in as little as 48 hours and is generally associated with invasive skin streptococcal infections. The disease is spreading rapidly in Japan, where 977 people have been reported as of June 2.
Romanian doctors treated a young patient for this condition, before the pandemic, and he was cured, said Dr. Simin Aysel Florescu
“I don’t think they pose a threat to us at this point. Why am I telling you? It is not something new. Streptococcal infections are not something new anywhere in the world. This streptococcal toxic shock syndrome is usually preceded by invasive streptococcal skin infections. (…) They also existed in Romania and still exist. We had, a few years ago, before the pandemic, a patient in intensive care, 20 years old, with streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, with a rash that specific one, with scaling, with an obvious septic condition, required intensive therapy, and which escaped. So it is not a new disease“, said Simin Aysel Florescu, during the television show.
She explained that in Romania the frequency of this disease is “sporadic”toxic shock is not “a common or habitual disease’.
Preventive measures for this condition include maintaining proper hygiene and consulting a doctor in case of skin lesions.
The number of cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) has risen in Japan, surpassing the previous annual record of 941. This rare bacterial infection, caused by group A streptococci, can quickly become fatal, manifesting as fever, muscle aches, vomiting and other severe symptoms.
“Even with treatment, STSS can be fatal. Up to three out of ten people infected with STSS die from the infection”reported the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The elderly with open wounds are the most vulnerable. Factors such as decreased exposure to bacteria during the COVID-19 pandemic could contribute to the rise in cases in Japan.
