Complex surveillance of Streptococcus pyogenes. I. Immunological surveys of anti-M antibodies and possibilities of long-term epidemiological prognosis.

ABSTRACT

The results of complex surveillance of Streptococcus pyogenes, based on mass infections in the Czechoslovak army over a period of 11 years, are submitted. The epidemiological method revealed an incidence of cycles, lasting several years, of predominant pairs of T types, most of which could not be typed by their M protein. Auxiliary immunological surveys allowed the biological M activity of widespread strains to be estimated and probably form a basis for considerations on a negative long-term epidemiological type prognosis. The preliminary results presented offer prospects for a realistic methodological approach to the question of the type content of a future antistreptococcal vaccine.