Really worrying about strep A

[QueenBean9]

I am usually pragmatic with this sort of stuff but what the hell is going on?!

Media needs a new pandemic since everyone is bored of covid. So now emergency is clogged with people concerned they have strep A even if it's not severe. Previously it was covid, before that swine flu........

Wrong thread?

Children haven't been living in a germ free environment for a number of years and even if they had been, I wouldn't mean their immune systems stop working. Don't be ridiculous.

I wish people wouldnt just glibly say "a dose of penicillin and you will be fine" i am allergic to penicillin (anaphylaxis ) and have allergies to many many other antibiotics. so do my family. so for us and many like us and there are lots of people with penicillin allergy its not that straightforward. I worry a lot about getting any sort of illness and have now had shingles 4 times in 18 months. after 60+ years of suffering multiple allergies and odd infections I have at last been referred to a specialist.

@orchid220 These are just suggestions, not facts, do you feel guilty because you decided to isolate your child or something?

surely the more germs you are exposed to, the stronger your immune system will be?

@QueenBean9 no it doesn’t work like that.

The more different pathogens/bugs (viruses, bacteria or fungal infections) your immune system is exposed to (through vaccines or exposure to infection) the bigger its reference library is, so it can “look up” how to respond to an infection effectively.

Strep A, the pathogen is very common - I’ve seen figures that 1/4 kids would test positive for it if you swabbed the back of a random sample of throats - mostly it’s there asymptomatically and the immune system prevents it from getting out of control. We don’t treat asymptomatic infection as we need to keep antibiotics from becoming overused - we really don’t want to increase antibiotic resistance (which is where you get strains of bugs that are no longer killed by antibiotics that used to work).

However, if a person’s immune system is exposed to lots of threats at once then it begins to struggle. This is (sort of) our first normal winter cold & flu season since Covid-19 came into the scene. In normal mixing we may see colds, RSV, flu and now Covid strains being passed around.

All of this means that kids colonised with Strep A might end up with Strep A getting out of control because their body’s immune system is also dealing with various viral threats.

@GabrielAgreste apparently it does

@QueenBean9 thanks, I was responding to your last sentence “surely the more germs you are exposed to, the stronger your immune system will be?”

This is it. The risk from strep A isn't any greater this year but media reporting of infectious disease has changed dramatically and the public's perception of risk has also changed.

Yes it usually does

Cases of strep A are extremely high. This coupled with lockdowns and social distancing causing low immune systems in kids are what has caused a higher number of deaths sadly. The risk is still extremely low. As someone said on another thread, 8 children dead headlines sell more papers than 900,992 children live headlines.

Why on earth is it ridiculous? It's one of the widely respected theories about all this. Do you know something nobody else does? Or are you just bring argumentative for the sake of it?

Keep it classy mate

Thanks

Two of my children have had scarlet fever to reassure you. When you see it I personally found it distinctive, strawberry tongue surprises you and the cheeks flush. The body rash also is noticeable.
one of mine was milder and it cleared up alone, the other was quickly responsive to antibiotics.

whilst it’s in the media, remember any virus we see as ‘harmless’ may be severe. One of mine has a lifelong complication after nearly dying from chicken pox. No one is scared of it still, but I actually know of another child locally who was also similar. We don’t vaccinate or worry much though.

It is worrying me too. Especially as currently at home with a sick child who gets every bug going.
To follow on what @LiveIngSun
has said (which I'm sorry to hear you went through) I've read a few times that around 20 children die each year from chicken pox but again we don't worry about that. In that case there is even a vaccine not available via NHS but it which can he paid privately but most people don't get it. It's very hard to know how to respond to the strep A news and know how much of this worry is due to the media vs reality.

@LiveIngSun you don't vaccinate?

I suppose that is another argument altogether but actually infuriates me when parents don’t do the responsible thing and protect your child AND other children from things like measles.

@QueenBean9 chicken pox isn't offered as a vaccine on the NHS and to pay privately it's best part of £200. Measles is part of the schedule though and most parents do vaccinate. I don't think anyone mentioned measles?

Most kids in the UK aren’t vaccinated for chickenpox @QueenBean9 - I think that’s what @LiveIngSun meant - that CP is considered so mild that we don’t have a routine vaccination for it here & yet one of her kids suffered serious complications.

Chickenpox is part of routine schedule in USA, Australia and I think in parts of Europe too and yet we don't have it in our schedule despite the fact children die from complications from it every year.

Ahhh sorry, apologies 😊

Chicken pox vaccine from boots is £140

There isn't a theory that they have been living in a nearly "germ free" environment because they haven't unless you have been sterilising everything including the air. Most children would have had one or two colds in the last couple of years too.

As a group they won't have been exposed to quite so many RSV infections etc in the past couple of years (although a few have circulated) and this means herd immunity will probably be lower than usual and so the number of infections circulating could be higher. However, that doesn't mean individual immune systems aren't working. There may be more viruses/bacterial infections circulating than usual but when they are in contact with them they will produce antbodies as well now as they would have done before.

@ZooMount thanks that's right. Had my child vaccinated this year and on reflection is was more like £150 not £200. I just remember it being really expensive!