The association between emm3 and iGAS is not unexpected, since emm3 has been reported as a major cause of invasive disease in Portugal and other countries, although the comparison with pharyngitis isolates did not identify this emm type (Beres et al., 2004; Luca-Harari et al., 2009; Friães et al., 2013b). Here, PIGG is linked to pharyngitis.