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.

@user1466068383
I’m the last person to suggest school closures, we’ve nearly lost livelihoods because of the previous lockdowns. However in this case I will be the first to support it. Children’s lives are not to be played with at all. I also hope for some kind of a statement, otherwise I feel we’re in the dark right now

I recall when my children had chicken pox in March 2022, we got letters from school and nursery that they had also had a confirmed case of scarlet fever.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but seeing these news notifications today has sent a chill down my spine.

Thanks for this! I read it quickly as I was on my way out and didn't pick up on it being just one hospital. I've asked MN to remove my original post as it's not very helpful as a comparison to today's figures (and I don't want anyone else to see it and be worried).

Striking year-on-year cumulative totals in the latest report!

My daughter was hospitalised earlier this week with a very high temperature and stomach pains (this was initially thought to be appendicitis but later they spotted pus on her tonsils and said tonsilitis must have been causing the fever), they did say there was a lot of strep A going around so they swabbed her and we were discharged with 10 day's worth of penicillin (they said they'd be in touch if it was NOT strep A as we'd need different antibiotics - but they haven't been so I assume it was) . The tummy pain was a bit of a red herring but it's worth knowing that there is a lymph node in the tummy that can get inflamed and cause tummy pain even if it's actually tonsillitis!

5 children.

BBC News - Six children die with Strep A bacterial infection
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63840591

6 children

This is so worrying. Just seen the breaking news on my phone. 6 children is shocking. Thoughts to those families who have been affected.

BBC says 6 children in England and 1 in Wales. 😢

The numbers infected have increased a huge amount as you can see from the report that someone else posted. I haven’t done the maths to figure out if 6 deaths is what you’d expect from the case numbers in the report, though.

As @sunnyminds76 said up thread, we have also been told officially by our school that a secondary student died of it earlier this week, i suspect we are at the same school. We also received the UKHSA advice on what to look out for, including that it is very rare to be fatal. This doesn’t appear to be included in the 6 reported deaths, as they were all under 10. It really is heartbreaking for all these families.

I'm stunned there are people who haven't come across it. I thought it was a normal childhood disease that everyone caught - like chicken pix!

When my kids had scarlet fever (about 6 yrs ago) I ended up looking at my mum's baby books (from the 1970s) to try and figure out what it was. I took DD to the gp who prescribed abs.

Gp was unconcerned about D's who had had the same symptoms a few days earlier (but he always had a rash with any infection so I hadn't picked up on it).

I had it in the early 80s. I was off school for a bit but ok. (I also had chicken pox, mumps, measles and German measles -all the kids in our street did)
My flatmate had it in the 1990s at uni.
My dad had it in the 40s. He was quarantined and his posessions were burned to prevent spread of infection.

So this page is quite interesting from the CDC:
www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/surveillance.html

CDC estimates, in the most recent five years, approximately 14,000 to 25,000 cases of invasive group A strep disease occur each year in the United States. In the last five years between 1,500 and 2,300 people die annually due to invasive group A strep disease.
In contrast, experts estimate that several million cases of non-invasive group A strep illnesses occur each year. Non-invasive group A strep diseases include:

Pharyngitis (strep throat), which causes an estimated 5.2 million outpatient visits and 2.8 million antibiotic prescriptions annually among US persons aged 0–64 years1
Scarlet fever
Impetigo

In short the mortality rate for invasive Strep A is high; around 10%. But the mortality rate from catching Strep A at all has been very low.

Apologies last one from me! Just in response to your question OP about immunity: from the Guardian ‘Microbiologists believe that reduced mixing among children over the last two years may have caused a drop in population-wide immunity that may result in the UK experiencing an increase in transmission, particularly among school-age children.‘

I’ve just read 6 children in the UK :/ what on earth is happening?

This is exactly what I was talking about this morning about a friends daughter who has been constantly ill since going back to nursery in August, my youngest grandson has been the same. Lockdown has lowered their immune systems. Now I understand why people are frightened and want to protect their children but if we start shutting down schools and stop our children mixing we’re going to have a much bigger problem on our hands. The children I went to school with who were always ill were the ones who weren’t allowed out to play.

those poor families, I really feel for them.
I’ve just read this article www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/strep-a-sixth-death-outbreak-child-b2237889.html?amp it had some interesting points, it said there was another strep b surge in 2017/18 which saw the same death rate in under 10s in the same period of time.
it’s not exactly reassuring but at least it has been dealt with and brought under control before.
I’m going to keep such a close eye on my kids for the next few months.

I was born late sixties. Scarlet Fever was pretty unheard of then. Eightie

My mum also had rheumatic fever as a child, she ended up dying in her 40s while waiting for her damaged heart valve to be repaired.

Strep has never gone away. My DD ended up with post strep glomerulonephritis about 14 years ago. She spent time on dialysis but luckily her kidneys recovered. I was really angry at the time because I had taken her to the Dr who said it was viral and never gave antibiotics which could have stopped her going through this.

For those asking about regions, there are strep a cases in West Sussex confirmed by swab.

Quick question I missed to fill in the forms for my DC to have nasal flu vaccine at school, my DH says with all these nasty bugs doing the rounds we should go via doctors/ pharmacy and get them the flu vaccine. I don't think it'd make an iota of difference. Views?

Also experience with my ds was that it was very sudden. He was fine at 6pm after nursery, then didn't drink anything all night (he usually still has night milk) or anything the next day. He was lethargic, like a wet rag, plus fever and red throat spots. He didn't cry, just flopped, and occasionally whimpered for mama. Slept a lot. Strawberry tongue came days later.

@HairyToity

No harm in a flu vacc. That's doing the rounds too and if you get flu your immune system will
Be weaker and make you more susceptible to other illness

Strep is really common - about 1 in 10 adult throats is strep, and 1 in 3 for children.

Think of it as endemic.

It's usually pretty harmless (often requiring no treatment other than symptomatic relief) or is managed with antibiotics.

I can however be moderate or severe (invasive), so if symptoms deteriorate, seek medical advice

I agree with your DH. Flu is hospitalising children at the moment