Strep A in school

[EUwannabe]

So- I’m not on either side of the fence on this at all but would love to know what others would do. AIBU to keep my primary child off school now a Step A case has been confirmed in the school? X

Oh you're right. Worried again now

I don't know the medical answers to your questions. I was just making a point about statistics and averages.

I understand the worry, though. I’m struggling a lot and my anxiety is through the roof about it, so I do understand

There's a case in my 5 year olds class. I'm not keeping him off but I'm keeping a close eye for symptoms and will blatter the doctors door down for antibiotics if I see anything starting on his throat if I need to.

I was at the GP’s today GP said he had had about 30 kids in with sore throats that day…better safe than sorry

No. Your school has a case if Strep A. Not of iGAS.

Uncomplicated Strep A itself isn't the problem. It's the allied invasive type that is. You cannot avoid strep A. It's always around and is mostly mild. It's only those tiny few cases that turn into iGAS.

I haven't checked yet, but I don't think iGAS transmits iGAS itself to contacts. It's more that on these very few occasions, strep A becomes iGAS in those very few people for some reason.

This is from memory though, so in very happy to be corrected by someone with professional knowledge

But if you keep them off now, will you every time the school let you know of a confirmed case? That could happen again multiple times over the next few months, and how long would you keep them off for each time? What about the cases floating around which aren’t officially identified?

Don't be. As per my post above, those children will have normal Strep A. Which we know to normally be very mild.

What would you have done before though when scarlet fever was in school? We have 4 cases at our primary.

There is a telegraph article about a newly discovered undetected superbug of strep A which is immune to some antibiotics. I can’t read the full article as you have to pay or start a free trial. Haven’t seen it reported elsewhere but if this the case, that’s really worrying.

@Bluekerfuffle that article still seems to be saying that penicillin works. It’s other types of antibiotics that don’t. I could be reading it wrong though.

In 30 yrs nursing I never saw Scarlet Fever so I had to look it up, for children it’s more of a threat than Covid so you do need look out for the specific symptoms.
There is a good description on Wikipedia and no doubt other sites, the symptoms are quite distinctive.

Our reception classes had approx 8/10 cases of scarlet fever last year. Once the first couple of cases were finally diagnosed, they were all given AB’s (have to have for at least 24 hours before returning to school) the children were all fine. The previous year also had a spate of cases too.

I certainly wouldn’t worry yet.

As has been said, iGAS cannot be passed on - it is an individual reaction to a Strep A infection.

All of the fatalities are utter tragedy’s but as far as I’m aware they are all isolated cases in their areas.

Are you saying that Strep A is passed (even from people who have the harmful "form") and, only in some people, it becomes the harmful "form"? ie it's all about the person not the bacteria? It's about how that person deals with/responds to the bacteria.

Not challenging btw - I'm genuinely asking - and as the setup premise to my question, which is:

If that's the case (ie the same thing is being passed as in every other year) why are more people becoming seriously ill or dying than in other years?

If the bacteria being passed hasn't changed, then what has?

Anyone who is informed on this, please explain if you can.

Yes that's right. A bit like people with HIV can get AIDS but they don't pass on AIDS, they pass on HIV.

IGAS is what happens if the bacteria get into the blood stream, rather than just hang around on the tonsils/skin (impetigo can be strep as well) whatever. More fatalities this year because more cases and also less exposure in previous years due to covid measures makes children have a lower immunity (their bodies' haven't got the antibodies, or as many of them as they haven't been exposed to it for a few years).

Send your child to school for goodness sake, Step A is in most schools during winter but it’s had more publicity this year with children sadly dying.

It's sad and ridiculous that we don't quarantine for scarlet fever anymore. It's not as if our health service can cope and the best way for children to grow up is to avoid, within reason, getting these illnesses. There is no benefit to them whatsoever. It's a dangerous myth that it's good for children to get these diseases. Their immune systems do not need that kind of exposure to be fully functioning.

It's a personal risk decision based on your attitude to risk.

I don't understand the 2-3 children will die in your school argument at all though as the number would be much smaller if you're thinking about one school!

This makes literally no sense. The media is publicizing higher death rates because they are taking place.

If there's an antibiotic shortage that makes a difference too. Scarlet fever is no joke, never mind sepsis.

It's a worry.

I feel as though the quality of articles in newspapers (even serious ones) had been in decline over the years.

Nowadays, they just spout "messaging" from (say) the government - pat statements like "Don't worry" and "It's safe".

No, I want the facts and info behind these statements. I want to know how these conclusions were reached - and what words like "safe" mean in numerical terms. I want to be informed, not told what to do and think.

Sorry - rant over!

There is a paper published showing that lab mice developed strep after being administered with one of the nasal flu vaccines.

There was also a study undertaken at Uni of Southampton looking at the effects of the nasal flu vaccine on bacteria in the nose, and how that might impact on other family members. Not sure if results have yet been published.

We are particularly interested in whether or not children with higher numbers of bacteria in their noses after the administration of the vaccine are more likely to pass them on to other family members.

www.southampton.ac.uk/medicine/news/2018/10/novel-flu-study.page

Study funded by the Gates foundation and Pfizer though. They wouldn’t publish results showing negative effects of a vaccine...

You have a 1 in 20,000 chance of dying in a road traffic accident in the UK every year. A 1 in 240 chance over your lifetime. I assume you haven’t stopped driving?

Sorry, I was replying to:
“cherriegarcia · Today 16:30
If your child was stood in a crowd of 100,000 people and you knew 2 or 3 of them were going to be killed, would you leave them there?”

That isn't the point I was making.

I'm saying that one's own personal risk is not the national average - it depends on circumstances.

eg That 1 in 20,000 figure is an average. It is not tailored to you. If you do more or fewer hours on the road - your personal risk will change.

Similarly, your risk of getting an illness will fluctuate depending on whether you are close to people with said illness or not. If someone in your child's school has the illness, their chances of catching it are higher than if no one at their school has it.