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?

That's not true. Typhoid, meningococcus, the BCG?? Although there is no vaccine for this specific bacteria.

OP I'd tend to go along with the reduced exposure idea - due to lock down etc

It's not that - some DC were never locked down. Schools were open for key worker families, and have been fully open since about spring 2021. If it was that, we would have seen it earlier (last winter). We have however seen large peaks this year (April, July, October, possible start of an upturn now). Vaccination is protecting the adult population against severe disease, but is unlikely to protect against all after-effects of an infection.

My friend has had cellulitis twice in last month after never ever having had it before. She has a chikd in primary school. She's had awful sore throat. Already on antibiotics. Should she get tested? Sorry bit dim about strep a

Jesus decking Christ the level some people will stoop to in order to stigmatise foreigners is unbelievable.

I know several kids, including one of my own who have had a strep A infection over the past 10 years of me being a parent. We get notifications from the school at least once a year that it's going around.

Just to be absolutely clear. Strep A / Scarlet Fever is UNCOMMON not RARE and fuck all to do with the migrants.

We had a period of very few cases under lockdown..now we're in catch up mode. Whether the deaths are result of immunity debt or because Covid had wrecked immune systems is not known. But it is fuck all to do with immigrants. Can't believe this actually needs spelling out to some of the morons on here.

Of course it’s bigoted

and uneducated to boot

It’s not something I would have been worried about ordinarily - but now…when it’s close to impossible to get in front of a GP without 6 week wait and no beds available in hospitals for those who need them…that causes me concern.

Not so much that they might get, but that if they are very unwell there will be no help available.

This is what worries me

I've heard a lot of people say recently that their children / grandchildren are not seeing their GPs or just being told to buy over the counter medicine.
Many end up needing antibiotics , but it's taking a while to get to see anyone before they ended up in A and E.

Lockdown - Strep A link

Some experts think it is to do with the lack of immunity in these children following lockdown.

I tend to agree. I think keeping children away from all the usual germs and bugs they need to build up a healthy immune system will sadly have long lasting consequences.

I know many will disagree but these people are experts in this area. I would argue a Microbiologist who does this for a living would know more than us.

Disclaimer - I know the Metro isn’t the best source of info but they are quoting medical experts. And at this stage there is a lot of ‘may’ and ‘could’ as it’s hard to prove.

I think this is the second time since lockdown we have seen children affected more severely by illnesses and diseases than they wouldn’t normally have been.

Yup my experience when DD had it in the US too. Straight to urgent care where we waited max 5 minutes, swab for strep throat, waited maybe 15 minutes for results, script for antibiotics issued to pick up at the adjacent Walgreens. Back home within the hour. $50 for the appointment and $15 co pay for the script (and obvs the insurance premiums themselves) so the system is by no means perfect but you can easily access care when you need it. Meanwhile in the UK a 5YO dies after being turned away from A&E. It’s shocking.

My DD attends a pre school setting and a child in her class passed away this year with invasive group strep A. She presented with a sore throat and high fever and passed away within two days. The entire pre school and all staff were put on a two week course of preventative antibiotics.

I know it sounds over the top, but since then I have ordered group strep A swab tests online which aren’t cheap but at least I know I can test DD for it if she presents with similar symptoms in future. That incident scared the shit out of me.

I'm very worried about my DC getting ill with anything to be frank, considering the state of the NHS. Genuinely scared.

Also worth noting - the poor child that died in the pre school was seen by a doctor and sent home. The parents were told it was nothing more than a mild viral infection. I think swabbing for strep a should be standard in GP surgeries.

Bacterial infections tend to rely on CD4 lymphocytes to clear.

www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro1871

Covid-19 leads to transient or more long-term depletion of CD4 and CD8 T cells.

Good idea to get some strep A test swab kits, thanks @mothermotherm , I’ve just ordered some

Apparently lockdowns are causing the invasive Strep A.
You can and possibly have had step a non-invasive without realising. The invasive one is usually far rarer but due to lockdown, so many younger ones have been indoors in winter and not caught the usual bugs and infections associated with nursery and pre-school children.

It's worth knowing that strep A comes on very quick, invasive also has a fever, and rash, along with very red cheeks.

If you think there's a chance it's that call 111 is the advice.

Even so, Strep A invasive is more of a threat to over 65s, and immunocompromised people or those with HIV. These poor kids passed away because it was missed as a simple cough and cold.

6 children

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

Where did you order them from?
Do you get the results at home?

My Dd had it before covid lockdowns - she had the telltale scarlet fever rash. At that time, in our area, Strep A was causing a problem in care homes and there had been a fair few deaths in the residents - was in the local news at the time as I think they were saying nurses were spreading it between the homes. I agree that adopting the US model would likely prevent further deaths - shame that our GPs wave off so many childhood illnesses as viral.

Will order some of those @mothermotherm thanks .

Yes I've just ordered a pack of five as my two ds are always coming down with viruses. I have one off atm.

Thanks for telling us about the tests - they are cheap and hopefully reliable.

Which ones did you get?

My now 6 year old had invasive strep a at 2 weeks old that developed into sepsis. It was awful.

Out of interest does anyone know what AB would be used against it?

Recently needed Pencillen for my DC3 and it was quite difficult to source (had to try 3 chemists and this was both sugar and sugar free version we struggled to find).

I don't mean to scaremonger. I actually wonder if there was already some "stockpiling" of medication going on to tackle this outbreak.