Strep A - anyone else concerned?

[Whathefisgoingon]

DS will be 3 soon and every time he has more than the sniffles, his temp rises to 39.9, sometimes 40. How we are supposed to differentiate strep a from every other illness is beyond me. I’d like to throw antibiotics at everything now!

A friends kid had scarlet fever a few months back, I’d assumed it was quite common but now I’m thinking maybe not!

Anyone else feeling concerned? I spoke to the nursery and even they seemed a bit surprised about this govt “warning” that went out. I’d opened the conversation in the hope they’d go “we get these every year and it always passes!”

Honestly, no. Worried about the impact all the worried people will have on A+E though.

Strep A is more than just a temperature. If his only symptom is a temperature he needs calpol, fluids and rest not antibiotics.

It’s fairly common and easily treated with ABs.

My 2yo was sent home from nursery with suspected scarlet fever today, as soon as I rang the GP we were given an appointment and he has medication now.

The GP said it’s right to treat him but not to worry as he was still quite bright and himself, just hot, flushed and spotty tongue. Since then he’s showing signs of Rash on his torso

Yes a little worried

I'm really worried for my 2 year old, yesterday nursery sent out 2 separate warnings. The last said we have been asked to share this again with parents.
We have had no cases within the setting but there has been increased cases within the area. Hearing the death toll is at 15 and reading locally that parents are having to travel far and wide to obtain antibiotics it's so frightening and has had me in tears. My little boys already got very enlarged tonsils causing sleep apnea, hes currently on the waiting list for surgery in the new year. We did have a full fun weekend planned out and about about but we're chooising to stay home now and going to bake and build a gingerbread house instead. I'm also leaning toward keeping him home from nursery. At least untill we know more and they sort out this antibiotic fiasco

I'm not really worried. Scarlet fever is common - it's been round DD's nursery twice (though she miraculously avoided it both times) - and it's almost always mild. Of course I will be vigilant for a rash with temperature and look for strawberry tongue but I'm not panicking. Fortunately I've had positive experiences with the local health services for children and am confident we'd be able to get antibiotics same day if needed.

Strep A has always been around, and one of mine had scarlet fever. A number of children have aways died every year of this, you just haven’t heard about it.
Do not stress about it, just educate yourself on the symptoms. The sand paper rash is quite distinctive.

No not concerned. I know it's very serious for some children but a lot of its scaremongering by the media. It's causing queues to A&E, shortages of kids antibiotics etc. that's what scares me the most.

I'm a fairly relaxed parent who had a baby in a Covid lockdown but yeah I'd say I'm pretty concerned, partly because it's so difficult to get seen by a Dr here. We waited 6 hours in the summer when DS needed to go to the minor injury clinic, last time I needed a GP appointment for him it took 10 days to get a phone consultation. I feel very very sorry for all the NHS staff having to deal with all of this.

We had an email sent out by the nursery yesterday advising there has been suspended and cornfield cases of both scarlet fever AND flu in some children.

I’m keeping mine off until the new year now and holding the school breaks etc will nip it in the bud.

Suspended and cornfield?? Jesus Christ 😂that was meant to say suspected and confirmed!

Two of my children currently have strep a throat infections. I’m sure they’ve had countless other before, diagnosed as tonsillitis with no swab taken.

In my opinion the media is causing chaos. People are going to A&E with a fever when the GP would be fine.

more concerning to me was the struggle to get antibiotics. I had to call 15 pharmacies to get my prescription filled.

I'm in a school setting and currently 4 just in my class with confirmed strep A . One only had the day off to get Anti B she's fine. Other 3 off for a few days . As long as 24 hours has passed since the first dose of Anti Biotics they can come back rash and all. I'm not worried too much.
I know other classes has had quite poorly children

@Darthwazette yes, someone in my area had to ring 20 pharmacies for amoxicillin. In the end they found it in a town just outside. Outrageous.

I'm not worried. A few days ago my older daughter had symptoms of a urine infection. I called the GP, was only second in the queue, spoke to the receptionist, Doctor called within the hour, saw her early afternoon and later that day we quickly got liquid antibiotics at our nearest pharmacy.

My older daughter also got a sore throat a couple of weeks ago. She had no fever so we gave her painkillers and Strepsils.

It is horrible to think of those poor families of those 15 children. However the risk is still low so we won't worry yet.

I know how you feel. My 3 year old is getting viral infection after viral infection, 7 days of high temp and then a 5/7 days getting back to normal and then another one. It’s difficult when they have so many illnesses but I think there is a lot to be said by trust your instinct if you think there is something more going on.

I’m more concerned about the lack of availability of antibiotics.