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?

My DS became unwell last Tuesday but he improved over the weekend as he was hardly eating any food. I called my GP and I was refused an appointment as I work at work and didn't have my child with me. The receptionist offered me an appointment on Friday! I said he's only 7 and he needs to be checked sooner.

My local walk I'm centre was full to capacity. I called my actual GP yesterday evening and she told me to come down to the surgery.

DS has scarlett fever and the GP did a test for Strep A.

I was shocked to see the waiting area so FULL. My local GP was empty and I was disgusted that it seemed so quiet considering the walk in was turning people away as I left.

The trouble is trying to get a GP to review for child in the first place!

I don’t know the reason another 5yr old from Ireland has now died after contacting it last week . Making that 9

The trouble is trying to get a GP to review for child in the first place!

That's absolutely disgraceful. What there'll is going on with our GPs? 😡

There simply isn’t enough of them, that’s what’s going on.

That's not what has been communicated to the public though, it's all been about telephone consultations to prevent as a measure of Covid prevention. Since the first lockdown it has been virtually impossible to be seen in person by the GPs at our surgery. It's such a hassle to obtain an appointment many just don't bother.

If there aren't enough GPs, what can be done?

*as a measure of Covid prevention. Muddled up sentences!

Well it needs to be made a more attractive job for a start. Recruitment and retention are a major issue, as with other HCPs. If it wasn’t so shit in the NHS it might be more attractive! Also there’s a retirement time bomb about to explode. Many many GPs are retiring now or are within a few years of retirement, I think the same applies to hospital consultants too.

Plenty of school leavers want to train as doctors but the number of medical school places are very limited. They don't want to spend the money on training them.

Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, told Times Radio that people are right to be worried and “it’s an enormous tragedy for these families”. “We’re not used, in our society, to losing the lives of previously healthy children – this is something that’s very shocking and concerning,” he said.

“What we’ve got to do is get the balance right here; on the one hand not alarm people whose children are mildly ill - and there are a lot of mildly-ill children around at the moment – and at the same time help people and support people to seek care and attention when their children become seriously ill, relentlessly sicker and sicker as the hours go by. “

Heard one mum went to Gp was told urine infection. Took child to A&E in evening told viral declined rapidly during night back to A&E , now on Antibiotics for Scarlett . I mean can they not be swapped .
I know it must be very hard for doctors trying to distinguish between as mentioned above with symptoms being identical to viral’s.

twitter.com/jeffgilchrist/status/1599756699362938880?t=7HInJf6vQU7ZIJGDAZZS3w&s=19

It's not like previous spikes of Strep A as other posters have indicated. Far more children are seriously ill, in hospital and in intensive care with Strep A infections this winter. Why? Covid damages immune systems and children have been left to catch Covid multiple times.

I remember early on in pandemic Whitty I think ? Saying this was not something you want to catch , it’s unlike other infections we’ve seen .

Kids would be fine as wasn’t luckily effecting them until it did and ran through the schools . Ds has had it twice but I have heard of others 3 or 4 times . Who knows what it done .

I don't think that Strep A is a problem everywhere in the world though whereas covid is so probably nothing to do with covid. Probably nothing to do with lockdown either as RSV infections are up massively everywhere including Sweden which didn't have a lockdown. It is just probably just a random rise in infections which happens every now and then and always has.

I wonder if it is some how linked to COVID has it become more transmissible.

I am worried about trying to get the care if needed.

Is it even important to know whether it's strep A or not?

My DD has a high temperature and wouldn't open her mouth wide enough for doc to see. She's on antibiotics anyway now. Strep didn't even get mentioned during the appointment.

Her fever is very high ( last night it was at 40 ) but it does respond to paracetamol and ibuprofen, so I think she's OK.

@orchid220 not everywhere in the world has allowed COVID to spread in the same way that the UK has, especially in terms of the UK's approach of not allowing school kids to isolate more than 3 days. However Australia is also seeing a rise in Strep A and the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital is turning away patients. Canadian PICUs are overflowing and they have also run out of children's medicines, RSV is peaking in Sweden.

The thing is we're seeing more increased severity in illness. There's good reason to suspect that the fact that COVID damages your immunity has something to do with this, and even if it ends up being completely unrelated, we are not doing our children any favours by allowing continued, repeated infection. Things have to change. This means HEPA and ventilation, masking especially when sick, isolation when sick until fully recovered.

A lot of countries have let covid spread though and they aren't seeing a rise in strep so hopefully it isn't related. I do think that some people should be less blase about infection in general though and agree that there should be better ventilation, masking especially when sick, isolation when sick until fully recovered. So many people seem to think that "germs are good" for the immune system which is rubbish.

I’m starting to feel really scared.

Now that most older people have been vaccinated and boosted and are not at high risk of Covid any longer, it will be interesting to see if they are prepared to wear mask to reduce the spears of harmful viruses and bacteria to protect young children. I haven't seen any uptake in masks in my area.

*the spread

Don’t think masks would take off again not in this country anyway . A lot on Twitter of how masks have caused this .

Again it’s not so much the infection that worries me although it’s been said it is causing complications maybe more so now then any other spike previously. It’s there being a bed available should you need it . It’s all time and with a child who declines quickly you don’t have loads of time !

Someone being interviewed on Radio 4 this morning said that those who are getting seriously ill tend to be found to have several infections at the same time, so you could say the rise in the number of different viruses and bacteria circulating at the moment is probably a significant cause of the increased severity of some of the Strep A infections. It is already known that strep A is more dangerous if you already have chickenpox or influenza. And I have noticed in the school where I work that we get a flurry of chickenpox cases almost immediately after confirmed covid, or non-specific vomiting or flu-like bugs, so a lot of kids clearly are just getting one thing after another in close succession (or at the same time).

Then they need to reintroduce masks at school, offices, universities. Or is the government going to do nothing?

Masks arent going to magic up more GPs

This just breaks my heart

@Sallydimebar this is the sad truth of it, How many times do we hear that parents have been fobbed off about their children's health. It's so scary to think her parents did everything right but they weren't listened to. I think the more I hear this is why there are kids dying from it in large numbers. The nhs can't cope.