One child is dead. One hundred and sixty-six people tested positive. And the Chicago Department of Public Health — despite rapid mobilization — could not stop a Group A Streptococcus outbreak from spreading through an overcrowded migrant family shelter over nearly three months.
The CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, Volume 32 Number 6 (June 2026), published a formal after-action report on the outbreak, authored by K. Toews and colleagues. The study documents what happened when GAS entered a large congregate family migrant shelter in Chicago between October 2023 and January 2024 — and what the conditions inside that shelter made it nearly impossible to stop.
