Streptococci

“These bacteriological findings [of the 1920s] fitted in well with clinical observations, because the course and complications of scarlet fever, streptococcal sore throat, erysipelas, puerperal sepsis, and infections in various areas from which hemolytic streptococci were cultured, such as the middle ear, the meninges, and the lungs, were much alike. Doctors finally understood that a number of different types of streptococci produce these infections and that the organ that becomes involved depends mainly on how the streptococcus enters the body, by way of the upper respiratory passages, through the skin, or into the uterus of the recently delivered woman” (Dowling, 62). Hemolytic streptococci, acting in conjunction with an allergic reaction, also cause rheumatic fever and nephritis (65-68).