By the year 2000, however, that fraction is expected to rise to 50 percent, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Air travel, in addition, allows diseases to spread between cities on opposite ends of the globe in a matter of hours. The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for insuring the safety and effectiveness of the drugs and vaccines used to curb infectious diseases. The latter disorder killed puppeteer Jim Henson in 1990. Studies by Dennis Stevens at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, suggest invasive strep is armed with two powerful toxins.
Damage also is wreaked by the other toxin, an enzyme that destroys tissue by breaking down protein.
Invasive strep usually enters the body through minor injuries, such as deep bruises, punctures, or chicken pox blisters. People with invasive strep usually don't complain of a sore throat, but rather often have flu-like achiness and fatigue that is followed by a number of symptoms, including pain in one region of the body, cough and difficulty breathing, or painful skin that is red, hot and swollen and gradually purples and forms blisters. This can be accompanied or followed by confusion, low blood pressure, and coma. Surgical removal of infected tissue, possibly including limb amputation, may be necessary. Researchers are currently testing a vaccine for invasive strep.