Invasive Group A strep is quick and merciless, N.B. mother warns as deaths climb to 6

A New Brunswick mother who almost lost her child to invasive Group A strep about 16 years ago says she's still haunted by the experience and is sharing her family's ordeal in the hopes of helping others.

Carolle de Ste-Croix, who lives in Port Elgin, says her daughter Madeleine developed three infections within about seven weeks in 2007 when she was five years old.

Her immune system was so weakened by the repeated infections that she became septic and her organs started to shut down, said de Ste-Croix, a former Liberal MLA for Dalhousie-Restigouche East, where they lived at the time.

She describes her daughter's survival as "nothing short of miraculous."

With cases of invasive Group A strep on the rise in the province and across the country, de Ste-Croix wants to make sure other people are aware of the symptoms and the risks.

"Invasive strep A is quick, it's dangerous and it's merciless," she said.

"You know, we hear these stories of folks who have had flesh-eating disease, or scarlet fever, or who went septic like Madeleine, but the cases are so elevated right now, it's so worrisome."

New Brunswick has now recorded a sixth death from invasive Group A streptococcal infections in January and 30 confirmed cases, the Department of Health confirmed on Thursday.

That's double the national fatality rate of roughly one in 10 infected people.

It's also more than half New Brunswick's annual death toll for 2023, when 10 of 107 confirmed cases died.

Group A Streptococcal bacteria are commonly found on the skin or in the throat and typically cause mild illnesses, such as strep throat, scarlet fever and skin infections.

But when these bacteria spread into sterile parts of the body, such as the bloodstream, the fluids around the brain, lungs, or spine, or into soft tissue, they become "invasive" Group A strep infections, such as necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as flesh-eating disease, and toxic shock syndrome, which occurs when the bacteria produce toxins that can cause various organs to stop functioning.

De Ste-Croix said she felt compelled to post about her family's story on Facebook to remind people how serious strep A can be.

She dedicated the post to the daughter of a childhood friend who died in 2020 because of invasive Strep A that shut down her organs, and she publicly thanked Madeleine's doctors for saving her life.