Worried about Strep A outbreak

[Beebz]

It has now been reported that a second primary aged child has now tragically died from Strep A (iGAS). This is so shocking and how completely devastating for their families, I literally cannot even imagine the hell they are going through.

Is this something new or does this happen to children in this country every year? I don't remember hearing anything like this about strep/scarlet fever in the news before? How likely is it for primary aged children to become this ill from it? Is there anything we can do to protect our DC's from contracting it? This seems incredibly serious.

Strep a/ scarlet fever

i will be taking him back to doctors Monday but I’ve got myself all worked up and stressed that I now need to take him to a&e or somethinf
basically my 2 year old was very poorly about 2 weeks ago now he had very high temp, wasn’t himself just wanted to sleep would eat or drink and had dry nappies so I took him to a&e and was basically told it was viral and a managed to get him to drink, took him docs next day was told tonsillitis given antibiotics not sure how much he got as he would spit it out or refuse the drink I put it in most times. He seemed better with 2 days though but since has had a rash on his cheeks and around mouth, it comes and goes but is there Atleast once a day. Today he was sick randomly also. Will everything going on atm with strep a do you think it’s a possibly I’m so stressed now, can they check for it at docs?
attached photo of the rash he is completely fine in himself I would say.

@Mummyto2xo I’m not a doctor, no medical training at all. BUT if he was unwell 2 weeks ago, has had a course of antibiotics already, and is generally well in himself, I’d say that looks like a post viral rash. My DC used to get them all the time. But if you’re in any way concerned, obviously seek some proper medical advice.

I’ve just come out of a&e with my youngest. Woke up with a high temp this morning, we gave calpol etc. but it just wouldn’t come down lower than 38. She then got extremely red cheeks, they were almost glowing and went very floppy and lethargic. At that point me and DH were very worried and took her straight to A&E.
when we got there she was very floppy, half alseep and temp of 39.5. They triaged her and immediately gave her a HUGE dose of ibuprofen and calpol. We had to wait another five hours to be seen, whilst she slowly went back to a normal temp. and much more her self. Her cheeks were still pretty red, but definitely not glowing anymore.
when we saw the doctor they looked in her throat immediately, and said they could see inflammation/white spots and predicted antibiotics on the spot.
she’s already so much better, the wait was a bit of a nightmare, it was extremely busy, but they have given us antibiotics and not tried to fob us off, so overall I feel very relieved and lot more relaxed.
my dd is almost 2. There were a few older kids there who had strep and they all had upset stomachs as well, which I thought was interesting.

Glad to hear your DD is on the mind, though I find it really concerning you saw several children just in your A&E alone with Strep.

Starting to get a little panicky about this now.

i’m sorry! I meant my story to be reassuring.
I know the feeling though, I was getting pretty anxious watching the news etc Over the least few days, and when DD first started showing symptoms I was extremely worried.
but even on a very busy Saturday night in a London a&e we did manage to get her seen and treated pretty quickly, once we decided she needed help.
she had her first dose of antibiotics at the hostpital, and by the time we were home she was already improving.

there’s certainly a lot of it around, but I think it is true what they say in the news - for most kids it isn’t dangerous and it’s incredibly treatable if you act quickly. I also have an older DD (6) who is completely fine and showing no symptoms.
I don’t want to alarm you at all, when I say ‘a few older kids’, I probably saw about 3/4
older kids (6+) and they seemed similar to my DD, obviously pretty ill, but not extremely ill. They were all able to walk round, chat wit their mums etc. and all got antibiotics quickly as well.
once we were at the hospital and it was clear we were being taken serioulsy and they’d helped to bring down DDs temp it really wasn’t that bad. I was a lot more scared when my older DD had croup as a toddler and passed out with the struggle to get air in - and croup is harder to get rid of as well.
overall I’d say try not to overthink it and worry too much, but do keep an eye out and act quickly if your suspect strep a.

Please don't apologise @user1466068383 ! I think I'm just a little traumatised from Covid and shielding for eighteen months, the idea of having to go through that daily fear again has sent me in to a bit of a spiral I think. I will step away from the news a bit today to calm myself down.

@user1466068383 I doubt that the air in your bedrooms is very cold but I suppose you could be warm in bed and breathing in cold air which might have an effect on your ability to fight a cold .
This programme www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63602501 has been linked a lot on MN and talks about the effect of cold on the body .
Towards the end there is a snippet about the effect of breathing in cold air
Prof Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist from Yale University. She has also performed experiments showing breathing in cold air affects how the immune system works in the nose.
Iwasaki says that if she gets a cold she wears a mask because this keeps the nasal passages warm and moist and boosts the function of immune system in the cells in the nasal passage ways .(I think I've got the right )

More here medicine.yale.edu/news-article/cold-virus-replicates-better-at-cooler-temperatures/
Although the research was conducted on mouse cells, it offers clues that may benefit people, including the roughly 20% of us who harbor rhinovirus in our noses at any given time. “In general, the lower the temperature, it seems the lower the innate immune response to viruses,” noted Iwasaki. In other words, she said, the research may give credence to the old wives’ tale that people should keep warm, and even cover their noses, to avoid catching colds.

I completely understand! I feel like covid has re-wired my brain or something.
the first thing I thought when I saw the report that 6 children had died was ‘why aren’t the closing the schools’.
and then I was so surprised to find out there has been a similar outbreak in 2018, with a similar number of deaths, which was exactly when my older daughter was staring nursery - and I had no idea about it at the time. Just goes to show how much our attitudes and media reporting have changed.
although I am very thankful that there has been some sharing of the symptoms because it meant we were able to act quickly with dd.
shes gently improving. Still running a little temp, and feeling very lethargic, but the flush in her cheeks is coming down and she’s finally eating. I am so relieved, and it’s good to know it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be when I was anxiety spiralling last week reading the news.
I hope you get to enjoy the run up to Christmas, and don’t let this bother you too much - it is very treatable and the hospitals are taking it seriously. X

@user1466068383 UKHSA says "So far this season there have been 5 recorded deaths within 7 days of an iGAS diagnosis in children under 10 in England. During the last high season for Group A Strep infection (2017 to 2018) there were 4 deaths in children under 10 in the equivalent period." Four deaths over the whole season 2017-18 season compared to 6 (another announced yesterday) at the start of the 2022-23 season? Something's definitely not right.

www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-update-on-scarlet-fever-and-invasive-group-a-strep?ftag=MSF0951a18

I am not a health professional, so can’t really comment on the details of this tbh.
i imagine we’ll have to wait and see how the rest of this season plays out before a conclusion can be drawn.
there has certainly been a lot of speculation on this thread, and in the media that a combination of weakened immune systems from covid and increased social interaction as people become more comfortable post lockdowns may be contributing to increased communicable diseases, but I don’t think there is any solid data yet.
i have found it alarming, hearing the news over the last few weeks, but just wanted to share my story that my personal experience wasn’t as scary as I was imagining it to be.
all I can really say is (from my very limited personal experience) it’s the season for nasty Illnesses, there were also a lot of kids with croup in a&e last night, so keep an eye on the little ones and act quickly.

Both my daughters caught scared fever in 2014. I learned after that there were a lot of cases in our area that year

I too them to GP twice because they were much more unwell than they should have been with an ordinary viral infection. Was told it was just viral fever/rash both times.

I called a friend abroad who is a doctor, mentioned the pink, puffy cheeks they had, and she immediately suggested scarlet fever.

So I went back to GP and raised the issue, and he went 'well, yeess, a bit of scarlatina possibly...' and prescribed antibiotics that sorted it out.

Point being that yes, GPs will fob you off and not look properly. They're so trained to gate-keep. Hopefully they're more alert now.

Quite. I was told by a doctor that my child couldn't possibly catch SF a second time if she'd already had it before.
The next doctor I saw said that was rubbish and children can catch it many times.

Our GP’s were brilliant when all of mine had scarlet fever (2 eldest had it 4 years ago, youngest had it this year). Recognised the signs straight away and prescribed antibiotics.

I rang our GP for our CEV DS this morning at 8 and got an appointment for 10 face to face.
She can hear a crackle on his chest and his throat is very red so he's been given high dose steroids for 3 days and some antibiotics just in case.
I can't fault them really.
Funnily enough, she said there hasn't been any cases of strep in our area of Lancs yet.

Another 12 year old has died of Strep A in London according to BBC news. This is so horrible.

I wonder if it's the other boys friend?
They said another from that school was in hospital

It seems to be at a different school in London, but I it does seem to be putting lots of children in hospital too, so how "rare" can these effects really be? This seems really unusual.

This is so scary.

Oh no, where did you see this. The only reference I've seen to a 12-year-old was the Colfe's boy, but that was reported last week already.

I saw it here but I wasn't aware it had been reported already www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63860028, I find it difficult to keep track of, there doesn't seem to be a definitive number of those children who have died and those in hospital the number seems to change all the time in different papers.

An eighth child has now died. Is there not anything that can be done? Surely some fairly large public health measures should be being taken at this stage?

The trouble is those who have invasive strep a will go from being fine to being seriously ill in the space of hours. Getting antibiotics fast enough is a serious problem. By the time a child is deteriorating- it’s quick and getting them to A&E is the the only option but some A&Es are turning everyone away.
A lot of people won’t be able to see a GP easily to get antibiotics whilst symptoms are mild .
the trouble is the healthcare system is rammed and so the vital initial treatment is not being done.
plus there is a shortage of antibiotics- my local town has none in stock - no variety or type of any antibiotic.
I wish I had the answers.

I am very worried. Eight children dead and no statement from the government, no comment from my kids school, nothing. It’s shocking that this is not being formally addressed by Public Health authorities.

My worry is at what point do you know it is time to seek medical attention, e.g. if the child has a sore throat then of course you just wait and keep a close eye don't you, because it's just a sore throat which you wouldn't go to a doctor for. So, if the child then develops a high temperature, do you go to the GP, or do you wait for a rash? Is a sore throat & a high-ish temperature enough to warrant a GP visit? What about a sore throat and body aches, is that a GP call?

I don't want to miss the signs/be too late. It's really scary.

So just in my experience of a couple of my kids and I having had scarlet fever twice - we all felt really, incredibly unwell. None of us normally get that ill. Tonsils very, very red and swollen and it was just impossible to eat anything except ice cream/yogurt/soup, and even that was only manageable for a few bites. It was just so different to any other sore throat. I was reading advice about gargling with salt water but even the thought of gargling was unbearable.

One of my kids also presented with vomiting. The rash is really distinctive when it appears, but the main thing was the swallowing glass feeling.