N.S. couple dies from strep A just hours apart. Their family is speaking out

globalnews.ca:

group A strep until it was too late.Strep A are bacteria found on the skin and throat that can cause a wide range of diseases in children and adults. Invasive group A streptococcus occurs when the bacteria cause deeper infections and are isolated from a normally sterile body site, such as the blood.Ginny and Jeffery Killam of Woods Harbour, N.S., both died of the aggressive illness within hours of each other on Feb.

25. They were both 59, and Ginny was just weeks away from celebrating her 60th birthday.The sisters said they weren’t too concerned initially when their mother developed flu-like symptoms a few days before her death.“She went to her family doctor on Tuesday, and they told her she had influenza,” Sammi said.

“She came home and went to bed to get rest.”But that Thursday, Ginny’s symptoms got worse: she was “grey,” sweaty and clammy. She was rushed to hospital by ambulance and went into septic shock that night.Jeffery, who accompanied his wife to the hospital, began developing symptoms the next day and was admitted to hospital.

That night, Public Health informed Sammi and Meta that their parents had strep A. The sisters were put on antibiotics as a precaution.Ginny and Jeffery’s conditions deteriorated over the weekend before they passed away.“By Sunday morning at 10 a.m., our step-dad was coding, and they were losing mom,” Meta said.