Strep A infection

[Sallydimebar]

Just heard on radio how 4 children have now died of this within the month . Advise is to seek urgent medical care if worried .

How worried should we be about this infection? And am I being unreasonable in thinking it’s so hard at hospitals to seek urgent care . The poor 5 yr old who was sent away with tonsil infection as no bed was available died .

Are antibiotics working?

The advice is if allergic to penicillin, use azithromycin

@ofwarren apologies I missed that about the organ transplant - it may be worth speaking to your child's consultant

He can't have azithromycin or any antibiotics ending in 'mycin'.

Yes, I'm going to ring them in the morning.
We get phone access to them thankfully

My dd had scarlet fever the week before lockdown when she could not lift her head of the pillow. Nhs24 sent us to out of hours at 2am, it was an older semi retired doctor who was working he knew right away what it was and called his younger colleague in to show her. He prescribed her penicillin which he got himself and made her take the first dose there and then by 12pm the next day she was so much better. Its so important to get the antibiotics as quick as possible. If my dd had fallen ill a week later I'd hate to think what would have happened.

Just to add DD was 10 when she caught scarlet fever and no other child in her school had it at the time.

AMR isn’t a “threat”, it’s not a vague notion, it’s something that’s happening, right now, and has been for decades.

However, by the time the general public pay attention, it’ll be because there’s been mass deaths and it’s far too fucking late.

Hey, Fuck, I presume you are responding to my post? You're right of course, this is something that's happening now. I used the word "threat", really thinking of a time when it'll be hard to find any effective antibiotics, whether for meningitis, sepsis, post-operative, anything.
It is something most people do not seem to comprehend.

news.sky.com/story/parents-urged-to-vaccinate-under-fives-against-flu-amid-surge-in-infections-12760299?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter

not just Strep A....

More and more indication that Covid damages immune systems, which given 2 million with long covid in uk alone seems logical to me.

We need to reduce covid infections esp in our children.

At the rate we’re going, I’d wager 20 years at best before we hit that stage.

Current government seems to want to make ABs available OTC.

20 years is definitely too optimistic if that comes to pass

I think what we do here in the UK is a drop in the ocean, I have heard that you can buy AB 'over the counter' in most of Asia on the blackmarket.

Secondary school child has died from strep a. 12 years old. Parents now threatening to keep their kids off school in run up to Xmas

Ah sorry just seen already posted

Babies born during lockdown or after lockdown (i.e. 2021 onwards, now toddlers) are also being hit by lots of infections. They weren't alive during lockdowns, so how could it affect their immunity? Swedish children not locked down, also seeing sky high cases of RSV... And the UK had sky high RSV last winter amongst children, clearly they mixed and mingled plenty then, a year ago.

And whoever said catching strep A will give children immunity afterwards, no! You do not get immunity to it. It's bacterial. Hence recurrent strep throat infections.

This is what's been sent to all GPs and hospitals.

If this was the case we would have seen it happening shortly after the lockdown ended. Not 20 months (and one winter virus season) later.

I'm not sure.

Fortunately at my infant school we haven't had any serious cases of strep A.
However this winter term is proving very difficult with high numbers of children catching all manner of viruses and it then going round the classes and through the staff.
You have to wonder if the lockdown and being kept isolated and social distancing in general for so long means immunity hasn't built up.

Our absences numbers for children and staff are far worse this winter term than it was a year ago,

Young children may not have immunity to so many diseases e.g. chicken pox but the staff will. Also, the only way you get immunity to Strep A is by getting it and even then it is quite short term. People get it again and again.

In that case, I give it 2 years at best.

It's so hard to know what to do about sending kids to school. Should we be keeping them off or just keeping very close eye on them ? Surely the schools will all have been briefed and will close if necessary?

This (from 2019) references increases from 2014.

twitter.com/shamezladhani/status/1192434719008399363?s=46&t=ORdL9kz83ofjV9gOqR9Izw

It's awful we are once again in the position of either sending our children to school to potentially get very ill with a rapidly spreading illness, or fined/prosecuted for keeping them home. I can't believe families are being put in this position again.

I know. I seriously don't know what to do for the best. My DS shielded through covid and we ended up having to deregister. He only went back this march 😔

It reminds me of Covid all over again, maybe it's the kids Covid this time. Terrifying

I think you should keep them off if they are under the weather with another infection to avoid two things at once but if healthy let them go.