By Mia De Graaf Health Editor For Dailymail.com
Published: 16:40 GMT, 18 February 2019 | Updated: 16:40 GMT, 18 February 2019
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A vaccine could be developed to prevent deadly complications from strep throat, scientists say after discovering how the infection transforms into a flesh-eating disease.
More than 700 million people a year catch pesky sore throats from group A streptococcus bacteria, which can be passed through sneezing, coughing, kissing and touch.
Most of the time it clears up in a few days with a dose of antibiotics.
But in some - particularly children and new mothers - it can develop into invasive group A strep, moving from the throat into the muscles, lungs and blood and ravaging the healthy tissue, which proves fatal in 500,000 a year.
Experts warn that this is an increasingly pressing concern as we hurtle towards a future where antibiotics are less effective.
However, a new study has offered hope to curbing deadly cases of strep: scientists used artificial intelligence to sift through the largest data set ever collected on the group A strep genome, allowing them to finally map out the bacteria's complex structure.
Group A strep infection kills 500,000 a year. Experts warn that this is a growing concern as antibiotics become less effective. But US scientists have worked out how the bacteria develops - paving the way to a vaccine
'We and others have been studying this problem for over 100 years, and we still don't have an effective group A strep vaccine,' said lead author Dr James Musser of Houston Methodist
