It's at my sons nursery!! Yep gonna keep him off til after Xmas I think

oh my god, definitely keep him home Jake

I assume they informed you.

Tragic as to the losses of life.

Let's hope it is over soon.

Sadly another young child has died of Strep A
in Sussex, this time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-63922734

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Just pointing out that not just those who have (or are) kids beed to worry - the total death toll is apparently about 60, across all ages :(

I do think it's worth pointing out that strep infections are extremely common and always have been extremely common... it's not like Covid or pox etc. that "has an outbreak"... for example, the majority of tonsilitis is caused by Strep A bacteria (and a tonne of other generic sore throats).

Strep A is not the unusual part of the equation here - it's the fact that more children's immune systems don't seem to be able to tackle normal, common strep A infections and they're developing sepsis (it's the sepsis that causes deaths).

The graph I think does illustrate quite clearly that Covid lockdowns are part of the equation here... massive drop off in 2020/2021 and then a corresponding leap upwards in 2022.

This is a complex scenario really where it's hard to know what to do. People are now (understandably) "germ-terrified" after Covid and the compulsion (again an understandable one) is to wrap up our kids and keep them safe from those bugs. But there's clear evidence that that germ-avoidance has lead to decreased immune system development that puts kids, especially, at far more risk when they do catch something.

In short - the more we keep very young children away from mild infections that develop their fledgling immune systems, the more risk they're at in mid to late childhood.

But of course after the last few years, no parent of young children wants to hear "your children literally have to get sick sometimes for their own safety".

As usual the risk categories are the very young, the very old and the immune-compromised - bacterial infections like strep can be particularly nasty for the immune compromised because the bacteria multiplies exponentially.

Again I think worth reiterating that the issue at play here is not the strep itself... it's not a "new" or "worse" strep - it's the same strep that every single one of us will have had numerous times. Any time you've had a sore throat, it might have been strep.

The issue is 1) lack of previous exposure is making kids more susceptible to invasive strep (blood infection/sepsis) and 2) there's something like 3x or 4x higher case numbers (for the same reason) which will of course increase death stats.

Some more things to keep in mind;

1) Yes the fatality rate from invasive strep (sepsis) is quite high at around 9%

BUT

2) The chances of a strep A infection (even scarlet fever) developing into invasive strep is still very low if treated properly.

and 3) (I think this is the big one) the risk can be almost entirely eliminated if antibiotics are introduced quickly after onset. That's the one that's different from something like Covid - it's not a matter of just saying "oh no" and waiting it out - being vigilant and starting treatment ASAP (i.e. before sepsis) is very important.

What

So the majority of deaths are not in children yet they're the only ones being reported

Typical British media scaremongering


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But I imagine it's quite hard to know if something is just a nasty sore throat that will get better or something that urgently needs antibiotics, especially when access to healthcare is so poor right now

Not to be brutally blunt but ... elderly people being finished off by strep is a regular occurrence and always has been, it's not really news.

True that's why awareness is the big one here, and yes you're right the parts of this that I find really worrying are the issues with GP access in recent years, and the possibility of shortages of antibiotics. If parents know what they're looking for, can quickly get a face-to-face, and the antibiotics are ready and waiting at the pharmacy straight away then I don't think children are at huge risk. If they can't see a doctor, or can't get access to antibiotics quickly, then that can change alarmingly fast.

Ultimately the systematic destruction of healthcare/the NHS is going to be the major factor here. Again.

Postcode lottery will also come into play; e.g. I live somewhere that I'm confident that I could call my GP and have a phone appointment within an hour, face-to-face within a few hours, and a prescription in my hands today. The situation in large population centres (where some GP's have thousands upon thousands of people on their books per GP) isn't great. Days or longer to get a face to face appointment... if you can get though on the phone at all. :umm2: