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, other viruses can also have an effect.

What has been noted with covid is depletion of CD4 and CD8 that can persist to at least 6 months after the initial infection. That's relevant to how the body copes with strep

And I suspect a heck of a lot more people have had covid in the last 12 months than chicken pox (we've had 3 big waves this year, our rate per million population is usually among the highest 3, if not the actual highest, in the world)

I talk about everything I want and have never been called a bigot. Maybe you phrase things in a way that makes you sound like a bigot? You cold probably work on that (if you cared to).

It is those who blame migrants for problems who get called bigots.

I just can’t find any experts linking this Strep A outbreak to Covid weakening children’s immune systems. But I can find a fair few taking about the impact of lockdown on children building immunity to the usual diseases knocking around. Now they’re the experts not me so they must have made this assumption based on sound evidence. Since this is their job and they’ve studied viruses and patterns of outbreaks for years. They mentioned chicken pox but not Covid. Maybe more information will come out soon though.

Maybe once certain diseases have been suppressed to near zero by lockdowns/Covid then it takes a year or two for them to return as numbers are so low initially? I’m sure they’ve factored that in when making their claims. And again know more than we do.

I do think the broken state of the NHS is not helping either.

@carefulcalculator Good for you. Personally I care about the safety of children and the public and think it's asking for problems letting in undocumented migrants especially as I said before, we don't know about their background, their health or their intentions. If that makes me a bigot then so be it.
I think it's more odd to not be concerned.

@UnmentionedElephantDildo presumably the poxed skin makes infection more likely. Unfortunately I've read of children dying from chicken pox and most of them had bad eczema.

If Covid weakened all our immune systems wouldn’t we be seeing Strep A across all age groups? It seems to be young children in particular sadly, who, due to lockdowns missed the important years when immunity is built to many illnesses.

Scarlet fever running rife through the nursery I do a lot of work at. As well as chicken pox and hand, foot and mouth. 😔

@Anonykunt That makes sense regarding the pox. What a worrying situation.

According to the BBC six children have now died, heartbreaking.
I think it’s logical to assume that lockdown meant that a cohort of children didn’t build up sufficient natural immunity against fairly common illnesses, which are now having devastating impact in some children.
i don’t remember hearing locally of any cases of scarlet fever over the past 30 years yet there’s been a number in the past 6 months.

What they experts mean is that children haven't caught certain illnesses because of lockdown and now they are catching up. It doesn't mean that the immune system is less capable of fighting illness than if there hadn't been lockdown. There won't be more or worse illness overall.

Everyone is concerned about the 'safety of children and the public' - find me a person who isn't.

If that makes me a bigot then so be it If you are happy to be a bigot, why moan when people call you one?

I posted on the other thread. As a an adult I had strep a which caused sepsis. I went from having absolutely no symptoms to being very seriously ill within 6 hours. No sore throat, no rash at all.
Please be aware of sepsis and always seek urgent help if you think someone has it.

I am not 100% clear on when you should seek advice for possible Strep A personally - the info on BBC website was:

The UK Health Security Agency advises: "Anyone with high fever, severe muscle aches, pain in one area of the body and unexplained vomiting or diarrhoea should call NHS 111 and seek medical help immediately."

Do they really mean anyone with a high fever or vomiting/diarrhoea should call 111 - I would usually manage those things at home?

Just seen this.
So in 2019, they detected a new strep a strain.
I wonder if it's this strain making a resurgence?
www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2019/09/uk-researchers-detail-new-strep-strain-behind-rise-scarlet-fever

We are:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/group-a-streptococcal-infections-activity-during-the-2022-to-2023-season/group-a-streptococcal-infections-report-on-seasonal-activity-in-england-2022-to-2023

The WHO are saying that the number of cases isn't anymore than normal.

Where did you see that?

Do you actually know this for a fact or are you just maligning a groupd of people because you are a lazy thinker?

The biggest issue we face is the impact of overuse of antibiotics.

invasive strep A has always been around. saw cases every year in PICU.
I would want to know if cases were higher than usual, or whether this was just another media bogeyman designed to frighten people.

Yes there are more.
Taken from the link shared above:

A total of 4,622 notifications of scarlet fever were received from week 37 to 46 this season (2022 to 2023) in England, with 851 notifications received in week 46. This compares with an average of 1,294 (range 258 to 2,008) for this same period (weeks 37 to 46) in the previous 5 years.

@UnmentionedElephantDildo

Sorry I meant severe cases. That would indicate the immune system is compromised. So if Covid caused the immune system to weaken then it wouldn’t be just primary aged school children who would have the most serious outcomes. It would surely be older people who had more severe Covid.

Covid statistically is milder in children (I know there are exceptions). And a mild virus is less likely to affect the immune system than a serious illness that you’ve struggled to fight off.

The eBay tests have sold out now.

@lollipoprainbow no still showing available on my eBay .. but wouldn’t be surprised people are buying them like mad now.

Covid statistically is milder in children (I know there are exceptions). And a mild virus is less likely to affect the immune system than a serious illness that you’ve struggled to fight off

Can you source that? Because the body of evidence I have come across shows that there is no connection between severity of initial illness and later effects (on immune system, or on any form of long covid)

That’s exactly what I’m thinking. Is it just fear mongering from media?