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?

Yes, penicillin

@ofwarren these.

unfortunately for this there is no vaccine (yet).

Not true. There’s vaccines for meningitis strains that are bacterial.

Exactly what Dh and I said!

People only shout bigot/racist at bigots and racists.

The ignorance is amazing. The only reason diphtheria spread is because our racist, bigoted government didn't vaccinate or take enough care.

Yes the results are almost instant, very similar to the Covid home tests

Apparently lockdowns are causing the invasive Strep A

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.

See the posts above about how covid causes depletion of the relevant pats of the immune system.

Strep A is usually pretty harmless, but occasionally cases moderate or severe disease. In a population where a high proportion have had a disease which depletes immune function in the last year or so, then an increase in the numbers having moderate or severe disease would be expected.

Yes, I feel the same. First time I've felt there was no emergency care, let alone routine care.

You’re right to be scared. I work in A&E frequently and I leave every shift upset and afraid for if my family ever needs urgent care

As another poster said, it lives in our respiratory system and skin usually harmlessly. How does it become life threatening? Does it enter the bloodstream or something?

Thank you for the work you do! I have family working in emergency care, I know the horror stories in the media are true.

@Anonykunt

‘Why does invasive group A streptococcal disease occur? Invasive group A streptococcal infections occur when the bacteria gets past the defenses of the person who is infected. This may occur when a person has sores or other breaks in the skin that allow the bacteria to get into the tissue.’

This is what it says on a google search and this was also the same information I received regarding invasive group strep A in the public health letter from the pre school

It appears that this year is much worse than last year for illnesses. Apparently cases of scarlet fever are 8 times higher. And more people are being hospitalised with flu.

I don’t think we’d have immediately seen all these diseases return and be worse straight after lockdown. Maybe it takes a while for them to come back in to circulation. I’m not an expert but the experts I linked to think it may due to reduced immunity in children due to lockdowns. I didn’t see any of them mention Covid.

Scarlet fever is doing the rounds in the school I work in 🙁

My friends one year old has scarlet fever at the moment the wee lamb

Yes we have a lot of scarlet fever in the schools round here.

I think as others have said the critical state of our NHS is a factor in this too. Last night BBC news said we're experiencing over 200 excess deaths per week due to NHS overwhelm - from patients dying in ambulances to those with cancer getting diagnosed too late. Real term reduction in funding, beds and staff over the last 12 years while the population ages etc us literally proving fatal.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/13/whats-behind-the-mystery-of-thousands-of-excess-deaths-this-summer
from Sept, but still valid. Covid + Strep A + flu this winter is a scary proposition.

a) last time there was a bad winter for scarlet fever (2017/18) there were 4 deaths. We've had 6 since September, so slightly up.

b) lockdown effects would have occurred in the aftermath of lockdown, not 20 months later (and not amongst DC who have been freely mixing germs since schools went back unmitigated in spring 21)
c) try "covid effects on immune system" if you want the expert view

www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-are-excess-deaths-higher-now-than-during-covid/

@Sallydimebar this quote from today's BBC app article might help to put it into perspective.

I suspect it wasn't the BBC's top story in 2017/18. People are more anxious post-Covid and the media helps to fuel that. 🤔

Two years of lockdown may have also made children less immune to infections and viruses that they would normally have come into contact with.

I'm wondering about Covid effects on immune system too. I had Covid badly before vaccines were out. Just recovering from a virus - totally wiped me out for almost 2 weeks.

@UnmentionedElephantDildo Sadly one of the experts says he expects to see more deaths. But I hope he’s wrong.

I don’t think it’s a black and white as Covid affects everyone’s immune system. Especially those who had a mild case. I don’t doubt being ill with any serious virus weakens your immune system temporarily- and those with Long Covid yes longer. I had a very weak immune system after getting very serious flu. The experts are saying actually a recent infection with chicken pox can cause more susceptibility to Strep A.

It’s very complex and not one we will understand for some time I fear.

Not having some 5000 people at any one time requiring covid treatment would help!

I really don't understand why the government does not provide Evusheld to all those who were eligible for a third primary jab. Because a high proportion of that 5000 are the immune suppressed, and Evusheld (from international studies) reduces incidence in that population by around 90%. Even US is providing it free! But the government refuses to fund.

I do wonder what other basic elements of cost-effective preventative health measures are being utterly fucked up.

No they don't @carefulcalculator Some people call out racism on everything. Even legitimate concerns about migrants.