The UK is currently seeing an increased amount of Group A step, especially among children. We've had a few deaths. Recommendations are to practice good hand and respiratory hygiene, and keeping...
The UK is currently seeing an increased amount of Group A step, especially among children. We've had a few deaths.
Recommendations are to practice good hand and respiratory hygiene, and keeping away from others if you feel unwell (including staying off school if needed), and paying attention to symptoms and knowing when to see a doctor or go to ED.
It's important to avoid spreading misinformation, so here are the sources I'm using:
Antimicrobial susceptibility results from routine laboratory surveillance so far this season indicate tetracycline resistance in 25% of GAS sterile site isolates; this is lower than at this point last season (45%). Susceptibility testing of iGAS isolates against erythromycin indicated 7% were found resistant (compared with 19% last season), and for clindamycin, 7% were resistant at this point in the season (16% last season). Isolates remained universally susceptible to penicillin.
This feels like good news, because antibiotics are being pushed heavily to treat this at the moment in the UK. This is unusual because people are trying to be very cautious with antibiotics generally.
The median age of patients with iGAS infection was 50 years (range 1 year and under, to 102 years), slightly lower than the range seen at this point in the preceding 5 seasons (age 54 to 57 years); 21% of iGAS infections reported so far this season are in children (age 10 years and under), higher than the range seen for the past 5 seasons (5% to 11%).
I've focussed on children because the reporting is focussed on children. But it's useful to remember it can affect all ages.
I feel very lucky to have such high quality public health information, being communicated in different ways at different levels of understanding that are relevant to the audience.
The UK is currently seeing an increased amount of Group A step, especially among children. We've had a few deaths.
Recommendations are to practice good hand and respiratory hygiene, and keeping away from others if you feel unwell (including staying off school if needed), and paying attention to symptoms and knowing when to see a doctor or go to ED.
It's important to avoid spreading misinformation, so here are the sources I'm using:
This video is being recommended by the UK Health Security Agency (which is the infectious disease part of what used to be called Public Health England). I'm sharing this video because it's plain and simple information aimed at the public. https://twitter.com/UKHSA/status/1600102941213347840?s=20&t=EnrxO3kCsLPZkXB5wdn2iw
Here's another video from UK Health Security Agency. He's taking it seriously, he's giving clear and simple advice, he's trying to keep people calm but emphasising when to seek urgent help: https://twitter.com/UKHSA/status/1600084834256244736?s=20&t=EnrxO3kCsLPZkXB5wdn2iw
The UKHSA has a public facing blog here: https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2022/12/05/group-a-strep-what-you-need-to-know/
The NHS Website has information for the public about scarlet fever. Caution: this page contains photos: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/scarlet-fever/
UKHSA have a press release here, showing that in previous years there were about 175-200 cases, but this year there have been about 850 cases. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-update-on-scarlet-fever-and-invasive-group-a-strep
The technical public health report with data and charts is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/group-a-streptococcal-infections-activity-during-the-2022-to-2023-season/group-a-streptococcal-infections-report-on-seasonal-activity-in-england-2022-to-2023
A few details from that technical report.
This feels like good news, because antibiotics are being pushed heavily to treat this at the moment in the UK. This is unusual because people are trying to be very cautious with antibiotics generally.
I've focussed on children because the reporting is focussed on children. But it's useful to remember it can affect all ages.
I feel very lucky to have such high quality public health information, being communicated in different ways at different levels of understanding that are relevant to the audience.