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.

Me either @ofwarren and we still have two weeks left to go. I just don't feel the response has been good enough so far. I suspect more serious action will start to be taken next week.

Just seen this retired GP on twitter.
The Mail also saying info from the health authorities expected today.

The news is reporting four deaths now. And someone in the comments said the disease is in the north east too but not been reported yet. I am terrified, it’s getting closer and closer to home.

Here's the weekly report on notifiable diseases, it does seem like there's something odd going on with scarlet fever....
www.gov.uk/government/publications/notifiable-diseases-weekly-reports-for-2022

It's not the sort of thing that is easily contained I would imagine, it's probably bloody everywhere by now

We are in HERTS and my dc at primary and secondary and their friends have had a horrendous cold, with many of them off school for 1-2 weeks. The key symptoms were a worse than usual sore throat, headache that would not let up, feeling lethargic and a temperature. Very watery red eyes and runny nose too.

Whatever this was it was very infectious and lasted longer than your average autumn cold, it's doing the rounds fast. I'd say the

They did not have flushed red cheeks though.

I bet its everywhere but we won't know because they don't routinely swab

A doctor from Birmingham

I'm watching with interest.

My dds had scarlet fever when they were 3 and 6yo, so over 15 years ago. They had the distinctive rash (like sandpaper) and were faintly pink, sore throat and temperature, but neither (including dd2 who does "at death's door" dramatics very well) were particularly ill with it. I remember them chasing each other round the garden in pouring rain with huge amounts of energy.

They didn't even have antibiotics. I spoke to a doctor and commented about it being an old-fashion illness that:

1. I'd thought had died out
2. I thought it was far worse. In old books you get death, blindness, months in bed etc.

They said to me that some thought that it was less of a threat due to antibiotics but there was also a school of thought that it had evolved to be milder. He said when he'd first started practicing (which would now have been over 50 years ago) it was still a feared illness and any child with it was treated very carefully, whereas now he hadn't come across a child who was very ill with it for a long time, with or without antibiotics. What's concerning me with these cases is that if it had evolved to become milder, then it would also evolve the other way. Hopefully that isn't the case, and certainly with the number of cases so far you couldn't state that, but it is worrying. However the other thing he said was that because it isn't so well known nowadays, and people assume as I nearly did, that it wasn't really around any more, that people leave it until the child's really ill to seek medical attention. So hopefully with the media attention that will not be the case.

That study was looking at data from one hospital, though (not suggesting that cases aren't spiking right now, but we're comparing four at one hospital in eight years with four in the entire country in the last two weeks rather than both figures being for the whole country).

www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-uk-strep-a-outbreaks/

expert reaction to UK Strep A outbreaks

Post covid it’s difficult to know what a reasonable response to a spreading illness is anymore. I’m sure most children will get this and just be briefly ill.
But I must admit the news is getting scarier and scarier, from a laypersons point of view it has the look and feel of an outbreak.
it sounds awful but my first thought is a school lockdown. Although I am mindful that this type of thinking could just be a hungover from covid, and do not want my kids to have any more unwarranted education disruptions.
are there any genuine health professionals on this thread who could advise if this is genuinely an ‘outbreak’, or more in line with normal trends?
also does anyone know was the precedent is for this sort of thing within schools. I always thought scarlet fever was an illness that required a quarantine period - but tbh I don’t know much about it all, it feels like something your read about in Little Women, not a modern day issue.
i do wish the government or NHS would put out a statement.

Thank you for clarifying!

I just did a quick Google for stats. The Telegraph article says that for every 100,000 cases of Strep A, 3 will develop into iGAS, which I assume is the development that makes it dangerous.

Obviously it is all hugely worrying but I do find these stats a bit reassuring.

So it is either a more dangerous strain, immunity issues, or the numbers of infected are huge? I am terrible with statistics (probably why I am so bloody scared of everything!)

Thank you for this, I saw it after I posted!

I think as parents all we can do is look out for symptoms and ensure we somehow access healthcare for our DC if they start showing the concerning symptoms.

There's just a lot of illness around at the moment, ranging from mild to more serious. 1/5 of DD's school are off at the moment with one thing or another, including Covid. However, it's a small school so that's not quite as dramatic as it sounds.

I am having second thoughts about DD going on the school trip to the pantomime just before Christmas though. Hundreds of young kids from different schools across the area, all sharing germs makes me want to run a mile!

We have had an "outbreak" of Scarlet Fever at our school. Letters from UKHSA to parents about it. As an outbreak is classed as 2 cases and no one else seems to have heard of any other cases it seems it may have been a very small outbreak.

My grandpa lost a brother to Scarlet Fever when he was a child, and had always drummed it in to us how dangerous it is. I do think antibiotic use has helped massively and also I do believe it is milder in the majority of cases, maybe due to better health and nutrition or maybe mutations of the disease. I will still be keeping a close eye on the kids over this winter.

Exactly the same. My mother was in an isolation hospital as a child with Scarlet fever. It left her with a damaged heart valve though she lived to 85.

I’m American and I had step throat frequently as a child, probably every other year, and I still get it occasionally as an adult. My children have had too. If you have a sore throat you look for the telltale white spots and go in for a throat culture. If the culture shows strep you get a prescription for amoxicillin and within 24 hours it starts feeling better. I think it’s what people in the UK generically refer to as “tonsillitis”.
Reading this description I think DS (26) had this early in 2020 when he was really ill with "tonsillitis". I found it odd that he had never had tonsillitis in his life and suddenly at the age of 24 he was bedridden with it. GP insisted that's what it was and gave erythromicin which he had an allergic reaction to. It was all a bit nasty just before covid started.

My DS got 'diagnosed' with chickenpox at 21 months by a GP. Despite it being mainly on his hands, wrists, feet and around his mouth (that was diagnosed as impetigo) and only one or two on his trunk. I was pretty sure it was Hand, Foot and Mouth though accepted the GP's opinion.

When he (and my DD) actually got chickenpox two years later, it was blatantly obviously chicken pox and also blatantly obvious that he had previously had HFM 🙄

For any parents of mixed race children it is important to be extra vigiliant as to what the rash looks like on non white skin. Be persistent at the surgery!!! My son hd scarlet fever missed twice by a locum gp as it presented differently than "what he had seen before".

Had similar with my son. He has an organ transplant and has to have iv if he has chicken pox. I took him hospital covered in a pussie type rash and said I think it's a staph infection. They insisted chicken pox and put on iv antiviral. Swab came back staph so he had an unnecessary medication and was late starting antibiotics

I had scarlet fever about 5 years ago - it was awful. I had antibiotics which cleared up the infection but ended up with an awful skin reaction and needed steroid cream for about 6 months to clear it up. Ds1(12) has just been given antibiotics for a cough that will just not clear up which is going around his school and ds2 (5) has been on them for a week already for tonsillitis which a few other children in school also have - it’s really worrying at the moment.

I’m very concerned. I’ll be careful not to have play dates with the children I know having a bit of a cold” even though most of the time it’s not a big deal for us, especially that children are at school full time surrounded by all kind of germs. I’m not sure if it’s a true concern or over reporting, but my heart is broken for the poor children and their families. I hope it will be taken seriously.