The gut as a source of the haemolytic streptococci causing infection in surgery of the intestinal and biliary tracts.

In a retrospective review over nearly four years in two Health Districts 84 patients were found to have had non-epidemic, non-enterococcal beta-haemolytic streptococcal infection in surgical conditions of the intestinal and biliary tracts and peritoneum. One third of the patients yielded streptococci from established inflammatory lesions closed to the external body surface and there was strong circumstantial evidence that organisms originated from the intestinal tract. A review of published studies of beta-haemolytic streptococci in the faeces and reports of streptococcal infection associated with the intestines lends support to the concept of the gut as a source of infection.