Strep A – live: Ninth child dies as Belfast school confirms ‘tragic loss’ of pupil – The Independent

Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, told Times Radio that people are right to be worried after a number of children died with Strep A, saying “it’s an enormous tragedy for these families”.

“We’re not used, in our society, to losing the lives of previously healthy children – this is something that’s very shocking and concerning,” he said.

“What we’ve got to do is get the balance right here; on the one hand not alarm people whose children are mildly ill = and there are a lot of mildly-ill children around at the moment – and at the same time help people and support people to seek care and attention when their children become seriously ill, relentlessly sicker and sicker as the hours go by. Those are the children that need to be urgently seen.”

He said children with “run of the mill” viral infections can feel unwell and then better again, and “things go up and down”, and they continue to eat and drink.

“Children who’ve got invasive bacterial infection, they don’t have those episodes of feeling better – they just get worse and worse,” he said.

“They stop eating, they stop responding, they sleep a lot. They might complain, if they are awake, of aches and pains and headaches.

“They might have a rash or a sore throat or tummy ache, but they just get sicker and sicker.

“When you see that progressive decline, that’s the time to get the child to medical attention.”

Holly Ramsey, from Kent, has revealed how at the end of November she faced a 12-hour wait for a call back from NHS 111 services for her poorly six-year-old twins and five-month-old baby.

She said initially when her twins were ill with a cough and fever during the evening she was directed to NHS 111 online services as the call services were experiencing “high level of demand”.

Our health correspondent Rebecca Thomas reports:

Dr Colin Brown, deputy director of the UKHSA, has suggested that a lack of mixing due to the Covid pandemic, with changes to mixing and susceptibility in children, are probably “bringing forward the normal scarlet fever season” from spring to this side of Christmas.

On advice to parents, he told Sky News: “I would say to be alert for anything that you are concerned about with regards to severe illness in your child.”

He said invasive Strep A infections cause serious illness, with signs such as a lack of urine, a child being floppy and unresponsive, difficulty in breathing, “or if there’s just anything that you feel that is out of the ordinary, particularly on the back of having a bad sore throat, scarlet fever or respiratory viral illness”.

She was treated at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children after she became severely ill last week.

Zoe Tidman reports:

A crisis in NHS 111 has left vulnerable patients unable to the get help they need while staff struggle to cope with the volume of calls – piling pressure on other overstretched areas of the emergency care system.

Staff say that as call numbers grow, their jobs have become like “working in a sweatshop”, with targets for the number of calls being put before patient safety.

Over the weekend there was a surge in 111 calls in relation to Strep A symptoms following the death of seven children in the UK, staff told The Independent.

Our health correspondent Rebecca Thomas has this exclusive story:

Dr Colin Brown, deputy director of the UKHSA, has said there is “long-standing guidance” that enables health protection teams to assess the situation in schools and nurseries to consider antibiotic prophylaxis for “either a group of children in certain classes or an entire nursery school”.

He told Sky News that “the information we have available at the moment is that there is no change” in the circulating strains of Strep A bacteria that is making them more severe.

“There isn’t something that is particularly new or novel about the bacteria that are causing the infections that we’re seeing at the moment,” he said.

“We are seeing a larger number of infections, for example, causing scarlet fever, than we would normally see this time of year.”

Parents have been warned to be on the lookout for symptoms after a rise in infections caused by the Strep A bacteria.

At least eight children have died with an invasive form of the bacteria in recent weeks, while cases of scarlet fever, which is caused by Strep A infection, have skyrocketed.

Concern has been raised as cases are higher than usual for the time of year.

Infections have been found across the country, with large concentrations of Strep A in southeast England, along with the northeast and northwest.

My colleague Liam James breaks down the case numbers across the UK by area:

A five-year-old girl who attended a primary school in Belfast has died after health officials said one of its pupils had been diagnosed with a severe form of Strep A, reports say.

BBC News NI says it understands the schoolgirl developed a severe illness last week and was treated at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, where she had been in intensive care.

The broadcaster claims she died on Monday.

It comes days after the Public Health Agency (PHA) sent a letter to parents of children at Black Mountain Primary School.

On Friday, PHA said a pupil had contracted severe form of Strep A and advised other pupils to preventative course of antibiotics.

Preventative antibiotics could be distributed among children at schools affected by Strep A infections, the schools minister has confirmed following the deaths of eight children.

Nick Gibb said the issue was raised in the House of Lords on Monday and the use of antibiotics is an option.

He told GB News: “Lord Markham said in the House of Lords yesterday that the UK Health and Security Agency are monitoring the position and are considering those kind of issues in those schools where there is an infection.

“This is an ongoing situation, the UKHSA are involved very closely with those schools and they will be providing further advice later on.

“But that may well be an option for those particular schools where there is an infection.”