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?

RSV seems to be the main culprit in for example Germany.

twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1599271041758420993?t=_Vh_ozklgCfH1KBHmziMhg&s=19

US hospitals overwhelmed by "Influenza like illness" and shortages of medicines for children in many areas.

USA and Canada. Alberta Children's Hospital is so overwhelmed that the hospice had to send all its patients home and send the nurses to the main hospital. BC CHildren's called a Code Orange yesterday.

The situation in Canada in particular is really quite concerning

When and how hard did they lock down?

BTW Several European countries have recently reintroduced mask mandates for indoor public places, because they are so worried thar the levels of infectious diseases threated to over-stress their health services.

Even countries which did not lock down are seeing similar rises in infectious diseases

Well my youngest had scarlet fever last week (started weds pm), I've just got home from being in a&e with my eldest as she has become very poorly very quickly with the same symptoms and they're pretty sure that's what she is suffering with too. She is lifeless, boiling hot with a very sore throat and mouth, sore muscles head to toe, a headache and a dry but persistent cough. She has rough red hot cheeks too. Sent home with antibiotics which we've started. Mighten I add a&e was absolutely heaving with children that all had a very similar complaint. Worrying indeed

We have just resorted to a private GP appointment on video, as I'm pregnant with my own fever and DD2 at home. DD1 has a very sore throat, persistent temp and aggressive cough to the point she's pulled muscles in her ribs. GP prescribed penicillin straight away and said doctors are being particularly generous with antibiotics in response to this winter's outbreak. I hope everyone here gets sorted asap and recovers quickly.

@knitnerd90 , wow that's concerning about BC Children's! It's all seemed like the Tylenol/Advil shortages etc. have been none of my concern, until a few days ago when the flu went through our house and I was utterly unable to source any meds for my son's fever. Then it all becomes a bit more real.
@Scaevola , we locked down pretty early on during Covid and things started easing up late last Spring. In my province, schools were closed from mid March 2020 until that September.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168281/

Can someone more knowledgable than me tell me in laymen’s terms what this means? To me, it seems to be saying that after Covid, our cells are more vulnerable to further infection? That bacteria finds it easier to ‘attach/bind’ and so infections post covid are more virulent - so covid boosts the strength of other infections?

I'm sure its the same after flu too.
I ended up with oral thrush and a mouth full of cold sores and ulcers after a bout of flu.

Yes. And also Covid makes it easier for Strep A to bind to cells during a Covid infection so a viral Covid can also become Covid + Strep A

@RenegadeMasterx i can only imagine what A&E is like when we’re told UKHSA recorded 851 cases of scarlet fever last week,
a huge rise compared to the pre-pandemic average of 186 cases that’s a big jump and I’m sure the hospitals are feeling the pressure.
Hope they both feel better soon .

I did see 1 advisor say if it starts to spread bad in education settings , we could put a firewall up and prescribe antibiotics to that setting to prevent serious illness but that would be last resort .

On Twitter the amount of kids who are poorly with it now , it is worrying as it’s apparently so contagious .

And this is why i stated on here several times they shouldnt use up all the public goodwill on one virus.

There is a big fucking difference between a new virus that’s rapidly spreading across the planet and one that’s been around for years.

We are a densely populated planet, frequent travel between countries, antibiotic resistance is on the rise, why the fuck is everyone so shocked that we’re having outbreaks?

This is so worrying. Feel sick to my stomach at the thought of sending them into school tomorrow.

How quickly did she go from well to ill?
I've heard a few people say the same. So worrying.
I hope they are both feeling better

So do I @Beebz but also know it's not going anywhere and can't keep him home forever! 😢 It's such a worrying time.

And the advise is to seek urgent care seen one mum say after 3 calls to 111 with 2yr old . 32hrs later she has antibiotics . This is why you end up having to go to A&E. I get it’s weekend but can’t see it be any better during the week .
Minister said this morning troops are being trained to deal with upcoming strikes .

I’m on annual leave this week, I was going to send DD to nursery as usual so I can run my huge list of errands but I think I’ll keep her off now. Being a parent is mentally draining these days.

Just if it helps for perspective (always helps me when I’m not sure if I’m letting the media rile up my anxiety!)
this is a bbc news article from 2017 which is being mentioned as the last year strep a was so high however it really does feel like the tone of the article is different - no mention of deaths even though we’ve read there had been 4 by this time that year.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42135842.amp

also an article from even longer ago 2014 which describes other really high numbers of cases that year and 1990 but again without quite the fear-inducing language.

amp.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/21/scarlet-fever-cases-children-england-highest-level-1990

Obviously absolutely horrific that any children have died at all, in any of these years, and heartbreaking for families now but it might help with the worry to know this is by far the only year numbers have been high - it just does feel like the reporting on it this year has a different tone to in the past.

I think the different tone relates to the lower ability of our health services to cope with it.

@ofwarren she was fine all day Saturday until around 5pm, got a headache and complained of muscle aches, to having a temp of 39.5 by 8pm and sore throat, tummy pains and a pounding headache and cough.

My youngest went to a hosp appt last weds morning, went to school afterwards fine at 12pm, came out of school at 3.10pm with a temp of 38.8, crying with sheer exhaustion and sore legs, with a headache. For my two it's been very sudden xx

This is what makes it so scary because you can't guarantee they will be seen for hours and hours.
It just makes me want to keep my kids safe at home as one of them has a liver transplant so is CEV and is also allergic to penicillin.

From Jan 2020
to May 2021- ONS report that 6 children (under 9) died from Covid. So it’s even more shocking knowing this, when those children had to go through so much upheaval when some thinking that has killed 8 children in a short space of time is getting no response at all from govt or schools. I for one will be asking my DC’s school what they are going to do to try to reduce any possible spread (eg informing parents if there is a case in school). Why is nothing more being done about this?

*something

It’s not so much the fever outbreak I worry about . It’s me sending him in school knowing this is now circulating. Ds friend very poorly now . I don’t want the fever but that’s not in my hands . The biggest concern is relying on a broken very over stretched health service .
knowing also a five old was turned away not long ago as no bed and no doctor available and I can believe it . It also seems to come on very quickly and decline is very quick .
I would hate to be depending on a ambulance at this time and it seems it’s a lottery with 111as to when you get call back . Also in these years I’m sure we hadn’t just come out of 2yrs of hell with a world pandemic.