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May 24

Jim Henson's death

His bio says he died from complications related to Group A streptococcal infection at the age of 53 in 1990. Wasn't it unusual to die from this in 1990? How common would it have been? It says he recently traveled from Los Angeles to North Carolina to New York over the space of two weeks while he came down with his initial symptoms. Could he have caught something while traveling? I remember reading that back in 1990, there was little oversight over the health quality of circulated air on board commercial air travel, and HEPA filters didn't become common until much later. It sounds like there was no particle filtration on planes when Henson flew. Could an airplane HEPA filter have saved Henson's life? Although it isn't mentioned in his Wikipedia bio, other sources suggest that Henson was a private tobacco smoker and this might have contributed to his poor health. Viriditas (talk) 21:44, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's potentially possible. But as I recall from that sad event, he knew he was sick but didn't want to "bother" anybody with it, and by the time he got around to looking into it, it was too late. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:30, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's a bit creepy to me, because I was deathly ill just around the same time (I think it was several months before that date) and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I think I had been spending too much time in Tijuana (it was a thing back then) and probably caught some unusual bug. Viriditas (talk) 09:39, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The article states that "Infection of GAS may spread through direct contact with mucus or sores on the skin," and "Close contacts of people affected by severe Group A streptococcal infections, defined as those having had prolonged household contact in the week before the onset of illness, may be at increased risk of infection." It doesn't commonly spread through the air, so HEPA filters are unlikely to make a difference. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:57, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm seeing different information. It apparently spreads easily through airborne dispersion in airplanes if you are within 1-2 rows of the carrier. There's a bit more info here.[1] That's from 2015, and there's a lot of unknowns. Viriditas (talk) 11:33, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]